The  Library 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles 


^ 


Morfts  b^  tbe  IRev.  professor  lRc&forD. 


THE    CHRISTIAN'S    PLEA   AGAINST 
MODERN    UNBELIEF. 

A  HANDBOOK  OF  CHRISTIAN  EVIDENCE. 

Second  Edition.     Crown  8vo,  7s.  6d.,  cloth. 


STUDIES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    JONAH. 

A  DEFENCE  AND  AN  EXPOSITION. 
Crown  8vo,  5s.,  cloth. 


LONDON  :   HODDER  &  STOUGHTON,  PATERNOSTER  ROW. 


5,6.^'-^^^^ 


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^/y-/^'> 


^^  ?  <. 


FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE; 


OB, 


FROM  MALACHI  TO  CHRIST. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

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http://www.archive.org/details/fourcenturiesofsOOredfiala 


FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE; 


OK, 


FROM  MALACHI  TO  CHRIST. 


EEV.  E.  A.  REDFOED,  M.A.,  LL.B., 

FKOFESSOR  OF  SYSTEMATIC  THEOLOGY  AND  APOLOGETICS,  NEW  COLLEGE,  LONDON  J 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  CHRISTIAN'S'PLEA  AGAINST  MODERN  UNBELIEF," 

"  STUDIES  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  JONAH,"  ETC.  ETC. 


CHICAGO: 
JANSEN    McCLUEG    &    CO., 

117   WABASH   AVENUE. 
1885. 


PREFACE. 


f\^  — -M 

I 

V.   n^HE  aim  of  this  volume,  it  will  be  understood 

^  from   the  title,   is   to   characterise   a  period, 

rather  than  to  set  forth  a  history.     The  author 

_    has  no   claim   to   be   refjarded  as  havincr  thrown 

iy    any   new    light,    by   inclependent    researches,    on 

^questions,   some   of  which   are  involved  in  much 

I   obscurity.     But  he  has  brought  together,  within 

^   a  limited   space,  a   number  of  facts,   which  will 

^  serve   to  confirm  the   faith   of  those  who  accept 

the   authority  of  Scripture,   while  they  illustrate 

Q   the  wonderful   method   of  Divine  Providence,  in 

s-j   preparing  the  way  for  the  higher  revelations  of 

-   Christianity. 

Too  little  attention  has  been  given  by  the 
students  of  revelation  to  the  deeply  interesting 
subjects  briefly  sketched  in  these  pages.  The 
author  has  been  led  by  this  consideration  to 
write  these  chapters,  which  appeared  as  separate 
papers   in   a   monthly   periodical.^     He    publishes 

^  Tlie  HomHetic  Magazine. 

283646 


VI  '  PKEFACE. 

tliem  now,  in  a  collected  form,  in  the  hope  that 
they  will  open  the  way,  in  some  minds,  to  a 
deeper  study  of  the  state  of  the  Jewisli  Church 
during  the  long  period  intervening  between  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  He  is  not  without 
the  conviction  that  such  a  study  will  do  much 
to  promote  the  cause  of  Truth.  The  whole 
question  of  revelation  is  one  of  profound  and 
momentous  interest  in  the  present  day.  It  is 
one  which  will  never  be  firmly  and  finally 
settled  on  any  other  than  an  historical  basis. 

Pdtnet,  July  13,  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.   THE  LAST  OF  THE  PROPHETS 1 

II.   THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE  ,  .  .  .  .  .16 

III.  THE   COURT   OF  THE   GENTILES 36 

IV.  THE   SEPTOAGINT 59 

V,   THE   APOCRYPHA         .           . 81 

VL   THE   SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS        ....  102 

VIL   THE   RISE   OF  JEWISH  SECTS 125 

VIII.  THE  GROWTH   OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION        .           .  145 

IX.   THE  JEWISH   SANHEDRIM 169 

X.   PHILO   OF  ALEXANDRIA 192 

XL   THE  DAWNING  LIGHT 216 

XIL  THE  VOICE   IN  THE  WILDERNESS 238 


FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE; 

OR, 

FROM  MALACHI  TO  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  I. 

'    THE   LAST   OP    THE   PROPHETS. 

npHE  two  volumes  which  now  stand  side  by  side 
in  our  Bible,  preserve,  in  their  separate  titles, 
the  memory  of  a  great  gulf  of  time,  dividing  the 
old  from  the  new.  Four  hundred  years  is  a  long 
period  in  the  history  of  any  nation.  They  were 
eventful  years  in  the  annals  of  the  Jewish  people. 
Is  it  possible,  we  naturally  ask,  that  during  all 
that  time  no  gleams  of  Truth  should  have  come 
forth  upon  the  sky  ?  There  was  once,  in  the  age 
of  the  great  prophets,  a  bright  glow  of  spiritual 
glory  spreading  along  the  horizon ;  faith  and  hope 
and  love  flaming  in  the  souls  of  lofty-minded  men, 
full  of  patriotic  ardour,  and  ecstatic  visions  of  the 
future,  breathing  the  highest  strains  of  poetic  rap- 


2  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

ture,   and   lifting   up  the  people   of  God   into  a 
prayerful  expectation  of  the  coming  day. 

That  wonderful  evening  sky  continued  to  cheer 
true  hearts  through  centuries  of  trouble  and  change. 
The  captives  of  Israel  and  Judah,  scattered  over 
Eastern  lands,  divided  from  one  another,  mourning 
over  the  desolation  of  their  homes,  and  bitterly 
repenting  the  ages  of  unfaithfulness  which  had  cul- 
minated in  so  gloomy  a  destiny  of  judgment,  still, 
through  the  long  sad  years  of  exile,  kept  before 
them  the  lovely  tints  of  prophetic  radiance ;  they 
spoke  to  them  of  a  rising  Sun  of  Righteousness, 
which  should  bring  with  it  the  day  of  salvation. 
ITie  seventy  years  of  Judah's  banishment  went  by. 
The  time  of  restoration  arrived.  Band  after  band 
of  exiles  returned  to  Palestine.  For  a  hundred 
years  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people  was  the 
history  of  a  reawakening  nationality.  But  the 
sky  was  not  again  lighted  up  with  the  same  bril- 
liancy. The  colours  seemed  to  fade.  There  were 
prophets  still  sent  to  accompany  the  work  of  res- 
toration. Zeruhhahel  had  his  Zechariah  and  his 
Ilaggai.  But  the  glow  of  the  prophetic  inspiration 
was  rather  declining  than  increasing.  At  last  the 
New  Jerusalem  seemed  to  be  complete.  The  ener- 
getic measures  of  the  Persian  cup-bearer,  Nehemiah, 
filled  with  zeal  for  his  beloved  land,  had  raised  up 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PROPHETS.  3 

the  fallen  city,  and  re-established  the  neglected 
Temple  service.  The  land  had  rest;  and  the 
people  could  look  away  from  the  sphere  of  their 
earthly  environment  to  the  heaven  of  their  hopes. 
Once  more,  as  the  faithful  reformer  (Nehemiah)  set 
his  diligent  hand  to  the  building  up  of  their  civil 
and  religious  establishment,  there  was  a  new  light 
shooting  across  the  sky,  and  brightening  the  hori- 
zon with  fresh  colours  of  Divine  appeal  and  invita- 
tion. It  was  not  so  rich  and  glowing  as  that  which 
flamed  like  a  fire  three  hundred  years  before,  but 
which  had  since  so  much  faded  from  the  view  of 
the  people.  But  it  was  still  beyond  all  doubt  a 
heavenly  gift.  And  after  that  eveuiug  of  prophecy 
there  followed  a  night  of  four  hundred  years ; 
during  which  it  was  only  here  and  there  that 
the  sky  was  faintly  illuminated  by  some  star  of 
wise,  devout  reflection,  borrowing  its  light  from 
the  past,  but  pointing  on  very  distinctly  to  the 
future. 

We  learn  much  from  the  study  of  that  remark- 
able silence  of  prophecy  in  Israel.  We  are  able  to 
distinguish  all  the  more  clearly  the  voice  of  God 
when  it  did  certainly  speak.  We  call  on  the  Jews 
themselves  to  be  our  witnesses,  that  in  putting 
the  New  Testament  beside  the  Old  we  are  not 
dishonouring  the  fathers,  but  giving  them  their 


4  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

true  place,  while  we  are  hailing  the  risen  glory 
of  the  day  of  grace.  There  were  many  writers 
after  the  time  of  the  Old  Testament.  But  there 
was  no  prophet  after  him  whose  words  were 
placed  by  the  Jews  themselves  at  the  end  of  their 
Scriptures.  Why  did  they  thus  distinguish  be- 
tween their  prophets  and  their  scribes  ?  "Was  it 
not  because  there  arose  no  messenger  whose  words 
and  ministry  seemed  to  them  at  all  like  those  who 
had  gone  before  ?  The  sacred  volume  of  the  Old 
Testament  was  put  together  by  the  labours  of 
Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and  others  of  their  contemporaries. 
And  the  reverence  which  immediately  gathered 
about  the  collection  of  sacred  writings  became  a 
"Aec/^e"  about  it,  not  to  be  broken  through.  From 
that  time  nothing  but  the  surpassing  claims  of  an 
inspired  teacher,  who  manifestly  came  from  God, 
would  lift  up  any  of  his  words  into  the  sky.  And 
alas !  the  formalism  of  the  schools,  the  cloudy 
disputations  of  the  Eabbis,  the  mists  of  earthly 
disorders  and  national  decay  floating  upwards, 
obscured  more  and  more  the  light  of  the  horizon, 
until  the  time  of  the  sunrising  came,  when  there 
was  again  the  morning  glow  that  "  prepared  the 
way  of  the  Lord." 

Let  us,  then,  first  take  our  stand  at  that  point 
of  time  which  is  indicated  by  the  close  of  the  Old 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PROPHETS.  5 

Testament  canon ;  and  let  us  look  at  that  evening 
sky  of  the  Jewish  Chuixh,  lighted  up  as  it  was  by 
the  last  gleam  of  prophetic  inspiration  in  the  words 
of  the  Prophet  Malachi. 

Although  the  fiery  trial  of  the  Babylonish  cap- 
tivity completely  removed  from  the  Jewish  nation 
all  the  dross  of  idolatry  in  the  form  of  pagan  rites 
and  worship  of  pagan  deities,  it  by  no  means  de- 
livered them  from  the  temptation  to  which  they 
were  still  exposed,  to  put  their  trust  in  that  which 
was  a  means  of  grace,  but  not  necessarily  grace 
itself  The  Levitical  Eestoration  brought  back  the 
law  of  Moses  into  its  place  of  supremacy.  The 
rebuilding  of  the  Temple,  and  recommencement  of 
Temple  services  and  national  festivals,  renewed 
in  the  minds  of  the  people  the  sense  of  their 
peculiar  vocation  as  a  consecrated  and  holy  natiou, 
to  offer  sacrifices  continually  unto  Jehovah,  accept- 
able in  His  sight  because  of  His  gracious  election. 
But  while  the  first  glory  of  the  reformation  glowed, 
no  doubt,  very  brightly  through  all  the  land,  and 
hopes  were  kindled  afresh  iu  all  hearts  that  the 
time  of  their  triumph  was  approaching,  generation 
followed  generation,  and  the  climax  was  still  de- 
layed. We  can  easily  imagine  that  the  first  zeal 
of  the  newly-founded  nation  began  to  grow  cold  ; 
the  legal  prescriptions  faded  out  of  recollection, 


6  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

and  the  Temple  lost  somewhat  of  its  attraction. 
The  children  of  those  who  surrounded  Zerubbabel 
were  less  enthusiastic  than  their  fathers.  The 
grandchildren  began  to  grow  weary  in  their  re- 
ligious services.  And  when  Nehemiah,  in  the 
century  following  that  of  the  return  of  the  captives, 
rebuilt  the  ruins  of  Jerusalem,  he  found  it  neces- 
sary to  take  stern  and  even  fierce  measures  to 
enforce  the  observance  of  the  law,  and  to  purify  the 
Temple  from  defilers.  During  his  absence  in  Persia 
the  people  had  fallen  back  into  disorder.  "  And  I 
came  to  Jerusalem,  and  understood  of  the  evil 
that  Eliashib  did  for  Tobiah  in  preparing  him  a 
chamber  in  the  courts  of  the  house  of  God.  And 
it  grieved  me  sore :  therefore  I  cast  forth  all  the 
household  stuff  of  Tobiah  out  of  the  chamber. 
Then  I  commanded,  and  they  cleansed  the  cham- 
bers :  and  thither  brought  I  again  the  vessels  of  the 
house  of  God,  with  the  meat  offering  and  the  frank- 
incense. Then  contended  I  Avith  the  rulers,  and 
said.  Why  is  the  house  of  God  forsaken  ? "  (Neh. 
xiii.  7-9,  11).  As  a  result  from  this  laxness  in 
religious  observance,  the  social  bonds  of  the  people 
were  being  loosened.  For  it  must  be  remembered 
that  for  the  Jews  to  become  careless  of  their  Temple 
and  of  their  law  was  not  to  rise  above  that  legal 
economy,  but  to  fall  below  it.     Just  as  there  is 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PROPHETS.  7 

many  a  man  still,  .who  forsakes  tbe  accustomed 
place  of  worship,  not  because  he  is  living  a  more 
spiritual  life  and  is  able  to  dispense  with  an  ex- 
ternal form,  but  because  the  sense  of  the  Divine, 
the  need  of  an  outlet  of  worshipping  feelings,  is 
gone.  So,  a  hundred  years  after  the  restoration  of 
the  Mosaic  system  under  Zerubbabel,  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  found  that  the  moral  life  of  the  Jews 
was  sinking  rapidly,  in  the  decay  of  religious  insti- 
tutions. There  was  one  survival  of  the  captivity, 
however,  which,  though  it  was  scarcely  likely  that 
the  zealous  reformers  should  appreciate  all  its  im- 
portance, contributed  much  to  preserve  the  spiritual 
element  of  the  people.  That  was  the  practice  of 
meeting  together  in  synagogue.  It  had  grown  up 
into  a  oreneral  and  well-established  religious  insti- 
tution,  during  the  time  of  exile  ;  though  it  doubt- 
less took  a  fresh  start  in  the  new  circumstances  of 
the  restoration,  especially  during  the  time  of  Ezra, 
when  the  study  of  the  ancient  Scriptures,  and  their 
diflfusion  among  the  people,  induced  many  to  seek 
the  public  assembly  and  the  exposition  of  God's 
Word  by  wise  and  learned  men.  Thus  "  the  Word 
of  God  and  prayer"  came  to  be  regarded  as  the 
substance  of  religion.  There  are  indications,  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Elisha  the  prophet,  that  the 
people  gathered  together,  on  occasion,  to  listen  to 


8  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

exhortations  elsewhere  than  in  the  Temple.  The 
long  suspension  of  the  Temple  services  during 
the  Captivity  would  call  out  such,  occasional  ser- 
vices into  more  regular  observance.  And  the  large 
number  of  psalms  attributed  to  the  same  period  cf 
the  exile,  points  to  the  congregational  worship  as 
that  which  then  prevailed.  Thus,  at  the  close  of 
the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  the  two  facts  meet 
us  in  the  history  :  on  the  one  hand,  the  general 
decline  of  religious  observance  and  moral  health 
among  the  people ;  and  on  the  other,  the  appear- 
ance of  a  congregational  worship  which,  while  it 
promoted  the  growth  of  the  Eabbinical  spirit,  and 
the  class  of  scribes  and  learned  doctors,  did  yet,  at 
the  same  time,  nourish  the  development  of  indi- 
vidual piety,  and  knowledge  of  the  Word  of  God. 

These  remarks  will  prepare  the  way  for  a  brief 
account  of  the  mission  of  Malachi.  It  is  remark- 
able that  there  should  be  no  personal  allusion 
throughout  the  four  chapters  which  compose  this 
last  book  of  the  Old  Testament,  by  which  we 
should  be  able  to  refer  it  to  any  one  author.  The 
title,  which  is,  of  course,  of  later  origin  than  the 
book  itself,  seems  to  be  purposely  ambiguous.  We 
are  left  in  doubt  whether  the  name  Malachi  is  to 
be  taken  as  the  name  of  a  prophet,  or  refers  to  the 
nature  of  the  message  itself.     "  Malachi "  may  be 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PROPHETS.  9 

a  shortened  form  for  Malachijah  (cf.  LXX.), 
"  Angel  of  the  Lord ; "  or  it  may  be  translated, 
"  My  angel."  The  title  may,  therefore,  read,  "  The 
Book  of  the  Word  of  the  Lord  to  Israel  by  my 
angel,"  or,  "  by  the  angel  of  the  Lord,"  or,  "  by  the 
hand  of  Malachi  "  (the  prophet).  But  it  is  well  to 
bear  in  mind  the  remark  made  by  Ewald  that,  see- 
ing the  very  word  "Malachi"  is  employed  (chapter 
iii.  i)  to  denote  the  Divine  messenger,  "Behold,  I 
will  send  my  messenger,"  no  prophet  would  have 
ventured  to  take  such  a  name  upon  himself. 
Perhaps  the  book  was  named  the  "  Book  of  the 
Angel,"  as  containing  the  prediction ;  and  then 
afterwards,  when  the  early  title  was  lost,  it  was 
supposed  to  be  written  by  a  prophet  named 
Malachi.  It  has  been  attributed  to  Ezra  himself, 
and  to  Nehemiah ;  but  the  authorship  remains 
quite  undecided.  Internal  evidence  leads  to  the 
conclusion,  that  it  was  a  message  sent  to  the  con- 
temporaries of  the  two  reformers ;  and  that  it  was 
the  last  of  the  Jewish  canon,  because,  after  the 
time  of  Nehemiah,  there  would  be  great  hesita- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  Jews  in  adding  to  the 
Scriptures. 

Casting  a  look  over  the  pages,  we  are  struck 
first  with  the  element  of  condemnation  and  the 
threat  of  judgment   which   runs    through  them. 


10  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

The  priesthood  is  corrupt.  The  services  of 
the  Temple  are  fallen  into  disorder.  The  whole 
religious  ceremonial  has  become  a  weariness  and  a 
loathing.  There  is  scepticism  eating  away  the 
heart  of  piety.  Immorality  is  increasing  in  the 
land.  Domestic  life  is  like  a  withered  flower. 
The  "proud"  are  "  called  happy,"  and  "they  that 
work  wickedness  are  set  up."  Sorcery,  adultery, 
false  swearing,  oppression  of  the  hireling  in  his 
wages,  the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  and  the  turn- 
ing aside  of  the  stranger  from  his  right.  Such  are 
the  flagrant  sins  which  defile  the  land.  And  the 
allusion,  at  the  end  of  the  book,  to  the  alienation 
of  the  children  from  their  fathers,  doubtless  refers 
to  the  sceptical,  rationalistic,  innovating  spirit, 
which  broke  out  in  such  sayings  as,  "  The  table  of 
the  Lord  is  contemptible."  "Behold,  what  a 
weariness  is  it ! "  "  Every  one  that  doeth  evil  is 
good  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  and  He  delighteth 
in  them."  "Where  is  the  God  of  judgment?" 
"  It  is  vain  to  serve  God,  and  what  profit  is  it  that 
we  have  kept  His  ordinance,  and  that  we  have 
walked  mournfully  before  the  Lord  of  Hosts  ? " 
We  have  not  far  to  go  to  find  the  parallel  of  such 
sayings.  They  are  the  scum  of  pride  and  irreligion 
floating  on  the  top  of  a  great  seething  mass  of 
unbelief  and  worldliness  in  a  time  of  transition ; 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PROPHETS.  1 1 

such  as  was  the  time  of  Ezra,  and  such  as  is  the 
time  in  which  we  live.  With  such  a  state  of  mind 
and  manners  to  deal  with,  how  did  the  prophetic 
voice  appeal  to  the  people  ? 

The  keynote  is  Love.  "  I  have  loved  you,  saith 
the  Lord"  (verse  2).  The  whole  of  the  message 
comes  out  of  this.  What  is  their  present  state  but 
an  ungrateful  rejection  of  Divine  love,  and  dis- 
honouring of  the  Divine  covenant  ?  It  is  but  an 
unfoldincr  of  the  original  covenant  of  love  that  is 
set  forth  in  the  third  chapter,  as  a  bright  glow  of 
promise  on  the  horizon  of  the  true  Israel.  "  Be- 
hold, I  will  send  my  messenger."  "  The  Lord 
whom  ye  seek  shall  suddenly  come  to  His  Temple, 
even  the  messenger  of  the  covenant,  whom  ye 
delight  in :  behold,  He  shall  come,  saith  the  Lord 
of  Hosts"  (iii.  i).  There  is  something  especially 
inspiring  to  the  people  in  the  promise  that  the  same 
Angel  of  mercy  who  had  been  at  the  head  of  Israel 
aU  through  the  history  of  the  past  should  reappear ; 
and  that  to  be  their  delight  and  their  glory. 
True,  it  would  be-  a  terrible  time  for  sinners.  The 
"  day  of  His  coming  "  would  hum  like  fire.  The 
brightness  of  His  face  would  purge  their  lives  like 
"fullers'  sope."  But  the  subsequent  purity  and 
pleasantness  was  a  prospect  for  all  that  feared  the 
Lord  and  waited  for  Him  to   keep  before  them. 


12  FOUR  CENTUHIES  OF  SILENCE. 

The  spiritual  renovation  and  revival  would  in- 
augurate a  period  of  general  prosperity.  "All 
nations  phall  call  you  blessed :  for  ye  shall  be  a 
delightsome  land,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 

Another  striking  feature  in  the  book  is  the  very 
emphatic  recognition  of  the  Church  within  the 
Church,  of  the  germ  of  a  new  Israel  in  the  midst 
of  the  decay  and  rejection  of  the  old.  "  Then  they 
that  feared  the  Lord  spake  often  one  to  another, 
and  the  Lord  hearkened  and  heard  it :  and  a  book 
of  remembrance  was  written  before  Him  for  them 
that  feared  the  Lord  and  that  thought  upon  His 
name.  And  they  shall  be  Mine,  saith  the  Lord  of 
Hosts,  in  that  day  when  I  make  up  My  jewels,  and 
I  will  spare  them,  as  a  man  sparetli  his  own  son 
that  serveth  him.  Then  shall  ye  return,  and  dis- 
cern between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  be- 
tween him  that  serveth  God  and  him  that  serveth 
Him  not"  (iii.  16-18).  This  doctrine  of  a  true 
Israel,  as  distinguished  from  a  merely  fleshly  Israel, 
which  was  brought  out  so  distinctly  by  the  Apostle 
Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Eomans,  was  the  con- 
stant theme  of  the  prophets :  no  doubt  it  was 
nominally  accepted  by  the  people,  but  practically 
it  remained  in  abeyance  until  the  time  came  when 
it  was  conspicuously  revealed  in  the  ministry  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PROPHETS.  13 

AVe  must  also  notice  tlie  cosmopolitan  tone  of 
this  last  book  of  the  Old  Testament.  While  the 
priests  and  Levites  are  rebuked  for  their  neglect  of 
the  Mosaic  Law,  there  is  no  Jewish  exclusiveness 
in  the  Divine  message.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
rejection  of  the  fallen  Israel  is  made  the  oppor- 
tunity for  the  proclamation  of  a  universal  gospel. 
"I  have  no  pleasure  in  you,  saith  the  Lord  of 
Hosts,  neither  will  I  accept  an  offering  at  your 
hand.  For  from  the  rising  of  the  sun,  even  unto 
the  going  down  of  the  same.  My  name  shall  be 
great  among  the  Gentiles ;  and  in  every  place  in- 
cense shall  be  offered  unto  My  name  and  a  pure 
offering :  for  My  name  shall  be  great  among  the 
heathen,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts  "  (i.  lo,  1 1).  There 
seems  to  be  an  allusion  to  this  breadth  of  the 
gospel  of  salvation  in  the  prediction  of  the  "Day 
of  the  Lord,"  with  which  the  book  concludes.  It 
is  a  day  of  judgment  on  the  ungodly,  which  shall 
"  hum  up  the  wicked  like  stuhhle ; "  but  it  is  not  a 
mere  day  of  destruction,  it  is  the  rising  of  "  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness  "  into  the  heavens.  There  is 
"healing  in  His  wings."  Surely  those  who  read 
such  a  prediction  would  recall  the  language  of  the 
nineteenth  Psalm,  where  the  sun  is  described  as 
lighting  all  the  world :  "  His  going  forth  is  from 
the  end  of  heaven,  and  his  circuit  unto  the  ends  of 


14  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

it :  and  there  is  nothing  liid  from  the  heat  there- 
of." Some  of  the  critics  have  made  a  great  deal  of 
the  parting  admonition  to  "  remember  the  Law  of 
Moses  with  the  statutes  and  judgments,"  and  the 
prediction  of  the  advent  of  Elijah ;  as  though  the 
spirit  of  Malachi  were  merely  that  of  Levitical 
obedience  and  formalism.  They  have  certainly 
misapprehended  the  language.  The  meaning  evi- 
dently is,  that  all  true  revival  and  restoration  of 
Israel  must  proceed  along  the  lines  of  faithfulness 
to  JeJiovah  and  His  covenant.  The  children  will 
not  be  better  than  their  fathers  by  despising  and 
trampling  under  foot  tbe  old  things ;  but  by 
developicg  the  germ  which  was  in  the  old  in  the 
new ;  putting  "  new  wine  into  new  wine-skins,"  but 
getting  the  new  wine  out  of  the  old  vineyard. 
Elijah  was  a  great  reformer ;  but  he  was  followed 
by  Elisha,  whose  ministry  extended  over  a  much 
larger  sphere,  and  was  much  more  beneficent.  The 
herald  of  the  kingdom  preached  repentance;  but 
the  Messiah  Himself  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  sent  forth  His  apostles  to  preach  the  Gospel 
**  to  every  creature."  These,  then,  were  the  main 
features  of  that  last  message,  which,  like  a  glow  in 
the  evening  sky,  remained  to  keep  alive  the  ex- 
pectation of  the  rising  day.  The  voice  of  a  loving 
Father  addressed  them.     They  were  invited  to  put 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PROPHETS.  15 

away  mere  legalism  and  formalism,  and  live  a 
spiritual  life  in  fellowship  with  one  another.  They 
were  pointed  to  the  Temple,  and  bid  to  w^ait 
around  it,  in  simple  obedience  and  faith,  until  the 
Great  Messiah  should  be  revealed,  and  the  Day 
of  the  Lord  should  come.  We  shall  see,  in  the 
chapters  which  follow,  how  far  this  gracious  appeal 
found  a  response  among  the  Jewish  people  during 
those  four  loug  centuries  when,  amidst  many  and 
-terrible  trials,  and  much  defection  from  the  .old 
standards,  they  still  preserved  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures which  had  been  handed  down  to  them  and 
put  in  order  by  Ezra  and  his  fellow-labourers, 
but  when  no  new  message  directly  from  God  w^as 
heard  in  their  midst.  It  w^as  a  time  of  de- 
generacy and  spiritual  decay.  But  here  and 
there,  as  we  shall  see,  a  gleam  of  light  appeared 
upon  the  horizon. 


16  FOUR  CENTURIES  OP  SILENCE. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE. 

rrHE  Jewish  Church,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
fourth  century  before  Christ,  when  the  message 
of  the  last  of  the  prophets,  Malachi,  was  still  fresh 
in  their  memory,  held  but  few  elements  of  spiritual 
growth  and  progress  among  them.  The  Scriptures 
were  no  doubt  in  common  use,  and  their  authority 
was  clearly  defined  by  the  labours  of  Ezra,  Nehe- 
miah,  and  others  of  the  religious  leaders.  The 
services  of  the  Temple  were  restored,  and  for  a 
time  were  punctually  and  carefully  observed.  The 
censures  which  were  pronounced  by  the  Prophet 
Malachi  upon  those  who  neglected  the  payment  of 
tithes,  who  oflered  unworthy  offerings,  and  who 
offended  against  the  marriage  laws,  are  evidence 
that  the  obligations  of  the  law  of  Moses  w^ere 
publicly  and  universally  recognised,  and  that  the 
defections  of  the  people  from  that  law  could  not  be 
excused  either  on  the  ground  of  their  ignorance  of 
what  the  law  prescribed,  or  their  doubt  of  its  bind- 


THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE.  1  7 

ing  force.  But  there  is  no  power  in  law  alone  to 
maintain  the  religious  life  of  a  people.  The  cap- 
tives who  returned  from  Babylon  brought  with 
them,  in  all  probability,  a  very  strong  feeling  of 
the  necessity  of  repentance  toward  Jehovah,  and 
of  watchful  care  over  their  spiritual  state  in  the 
future.  For  a  hundred  years  a  succession  of  emi- 
nent men,  full  of  zeal  for  the  law  and  a  devout 
spirit,  from  Zerubbabel  to  Nehemiah,  including 
many  prophets,  and  some  whose  writings  have 
come  down  to  us,  laboured  to  maintain  the  reli- 
gious life  of  the  new  settlers  in  Palestine.  But  the 
external  conditions  of  that  life  were  very  unfavour- 
able. There  was  much  disorder  and  confusion, 
which  even  the  utmost  patriotic  efforts  of  the  re- 
formers were  unable  to  remove.  The  spirit  of  the 
Persian  rule,  which  under  the  great  Cyrus  had  been 
protective  towards  the  Jews,  changed  for  the  worse 
under  his  successor.  The  ambition  which  had 
sought  for  universal  empire  produced  its  usual 
pernicious  fruits.  Persia,  under  the  weak-minded 
and  vacillating  Xerxes,  hurled  its  forces  against 
Eastern  Europe  under  the  leadership  of  Greece, 
was  driven  back  with  terrible  loss  and  defeat,  and 
sought  to  recover  its  prestige  by  attacks  upon  less 
formidable  foes.  The  struggle  for  the  complete 
subjection   of  Egypt  went  on  for  a  considerable 


18  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

period  in  a  number  of  separate  expeditions.  Judea 
suffered  much  by  the  passage  of  Persian  armies 
through  it.  As  an  instance  of  this  we  may  men- 
tion that,  between  the  years  2i11  ^-C-  and  374  B.C., 
there  were  two  hundred  thousand  barbarian  soldiers, 
besides  twenty  thousand  Greeks,  in  their  neigh- 
bourhood, of  course  making  requisitions  upon  them, 
and  otherwise  burdening  them  ;  at  Acco  were  three 
hundred  ships  of  war,  besides  store  ships ;  and  the 
Persian  army  marched  along  the  coast  of  Palestine 
to  Egypt.  It  must  have  been  very  difficult,  under 
such  circumstances,  to  preserve  anything  like  the 
order  and  regularity  of  religious  life.  The  institu- 
tions of  the  Jews  fell  into  decay. 

It  was  the  policy  of  the  Persian  Empire,  when 
its  central  strength  was  waning,  to  depend  more 
and  more  on  its  representatives,  in  its  various  pro- 
vinces or  satrapies.  The  satrap,  knowing  himself 
virtually  a  monarch,  deputed  his  power  to  his 
subordinates  as  his  responsibility  enlarged.  The 
Persian  governor  of  Syria  was  no  doubt  compelled 
to  put  more  and  more  authority  into  the  hands  of 
the  Jewish  high  priest,  who,  though  professedly  a 
religious  ruler,  soon  became  a  kind  of  satrap  within 
his  own  domain.  The  people  themselves  looked  to 
him  as  their  representative.  And  the  high  priest, 
in  his  turn,  used  bis  religious  position  to  exalt  his 


THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE.  19 

authority.  The  moral  corruption  which  ensued 
we  can  easily  understand  when  we  remember  the 
history  of  the  Papacy  during  the  Middle  Ages. 
Josephus  relates  an  instance  which  reveals  a  fear- 
ful state  of  things.  On  the  death  of  the  high 
priest  Joiada,  Bagoses,  the  Persian  general,  who 
was  in  the  neighbourhood  at  the  time,  nominated 
Joshua  as  a  successor ;  his  brother  John  murdered 
him  in  the  Temple,  and  left  his  dead  body  lying 
within  the  sacred  precincts.  Bagoses,  hearing  of 
the  outrage,  went  in  haste  to  Jerusalem,  made  his 
way  into  the  sanctuary,  and  when  the  Jews  ex- 
claimed at  his  violation  of  the  sanctity  of  the 
Temple,  replied,  "What,  am  I  not  as  pure  as  the 
dead  carcass  of  the  murdered  man  which  lies  in 
your  Temple "? "  He  laid  a  heavy  fine  upon  the 
nation,  which  was  rigorously  exacted  for  seven 
years. 

The  high  priests  were  not  only  political  despots, 
they  were,  by  their  dissensions  and  worldly  ambi- 
tion, corruptors  of  the  people  and  of  their  institu- 
tions. It  was  the  result  of  their  irreligious  spirit 
that  the  nation  was  led  away  into  ruinous  adven- 
tures. Such  was  the  attempt  made  by  some  to 
support  the  Phoenicians  of  Tyre  in  their  rebellion 
against  the  Persian  power,  which  led  the  Persian 
king,  Darius  Ochus,  to  lay  siege  to  Jericho  to  cap- 


20  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

ture  it,  and  carry  ofiP  many  of  its  inhabitants  to 
Egypt,  sending  others  to  Hyrcania  to  people  it. 
Jonathan,  or  John,  the  high  priest,  who  murdered 
his  brother,  still  retained  the  high  priesthood,  and 
continued  in  office  until  the  year  340  B.C.,  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  Jaddua,  the  high  priest  who  met 
Alexander  the  Great  when  he  came  to  Jerusalem. 
Wlien  the  chief  representative  of  a  religion  is  cor- 
rupt, what  can  be  expected  ?  The  high  priest 
Eliashib  was  rebuked  by  Nehemiah  for  his  laxness 
in  carrying  out  reforms,  which  he  rather  hindered 
than  promoted ;  and  his  successors  in  the  office  for 
nearly  a  century  seem  to  have  been  worthless 
cliaracters.  At  the  same  time,  the  scene  which 
occurred  on  the  advent  of  the  great  Macedonian 
conqueror  shows  that  the  external  pomp  of  wor- 
ship, and  the  gorgeousness  of  the  Temple  rites, 
were  maintained.  The  solemn  procession  suddenly 
emerged  from  the  city  :  "  The  priestly  tribe,"  says 
Dean  Stanley,  "in  their  white  robes;  the  high 
priest,  apparently  the  chief  authority  in  the  place, 
in  his  purple  and  gold  attire,  his  turban  on  his 
head,  bearing  the  golden  plate  on  which  was 
inscribed  the  ineffable  name  of  Jehovah."  "  '  Who 
are  these  ? '  said  Alexander  to  the  Samaritan 
guides,  who  had  gained  from  him  the  promise  of 
the  destruction  of  the  Temple,  and  the  possession 


THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE.  21 

of  Mount  Moriah.  '  They  are  the  rebels  who  deny 
your  authority,'  said  the  rival  sect.  They  marched 
all  night,  in  two  ranks,  preceded  by  torches,  and 
with  the  band  of  priestly  musicians  clashing  their 
cymbals.  It  was  the  sunrise  of  a  winter  morning 
(December  21st),  long  afterwards  observed  as  a 
joyous-  festival,  when  they  stood  before  the  king. 
To  the  astonishment  of  the  surrounding  chiefs, 
Alexander  descended  from  his  chariot  and  bowed 
to  the  earth  before  the  Jewish  leader.  None  ven- 
tured to  ask  the  meaning  of  this  seeming  frenzy 
save  Parmenio  alone.  '  Why  should  he,  whom 
all  men  worship,  worship  the  high  priest  of  the 
Jews?'  'Not  him,'  replied  the  king,  'but  the 
God,  whose  high  priest  he  is,  I  worship.  Long 
ago,  when  at  Dium  in  Macedonia,  I  saw  in  my 
dreams  such  an  one,  in  such  an  attire  as  this,  who 
urged  me  to  undertake  the  conquest  of  Persia  and 
succeed ! '  Hand  in  hand  with  the  high  priest, 
and  with  the  priestly  tribe  running  by  his  side,  he 
entered  the  sacred  enclosure,  and  ofifered  the  usual 
sacrifice ;  saw  with  pleasure  the  indication  of  the 
rise  of  the  Grecian  power  in  the  prophetic  books ; 
granted  free  use  of  their  ancestral  laws,  and  speci- 
ally, of  the  year  of  jubilee  inaugurated  so  solemnly 
a  hundred  years  before  under  Nehemiah  ;  promised 
to  befriend  the  Jewish  settlements  of  Babylonia 


22  FOUK  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

and  Media;  and  invited  any  who  were  disposed, 
to  serve  in  his  army,  with  the  preservation  of  their 
sacred  customs"  ("Jewish  Church,"  vol.  iii.  pp.  239, 
240).  There  may  be  a  large  amount  of  exagge- 
ration and  fable  in  this  account,  which  is  taken 
from  Josephus ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  priestly 
authority  was  high  enough  at  that  time  to  be  so 
influential  for  the  people,  and  that  the  ceremonial 
system  was  largely  maintained  by  the  Jews. 
Indeed  the  fact  that  there  was  a  rival  temple  set 
up  by  the  Samaritans,  on  Mount  Gerizim,  would 
itself  warrant  the  belief  that  the  people  of  Jeru- 
salem would  be  careful  to  exhibit  their  own  ritual 
as  superior  to  that  of  the  sectarians. 

Before  referring  to  the  indications  which  we  are 
able  to  discover  of  surviving  religious  life  among 
the  Jews  during  this  period  of  the  high  priest- 
hood, it  will  be  well  to  give  some  account  of  that 
rival  worship  which  was  set  up  by  the  Samaritans, 
which  had  important  influence  upon  some  of  the 
religious  views  and  practices  of  the  Palestinian 
Jews  for  the  next  four  hundred  years.  In  the 
year  408  b.c.  one  Sanballat,  chief  of  the  Samari- 
tans, obtained  permission  of  the  reigning  Persian 
king,  Darius  Nothus,  to  build  a  temple  on  Mount 
Gerizim.  His  power  over  the  king  arose  from  the 
fact  that  he  bad  furnished  the  Persian  army  with 


THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE.  23 

provisions  on  its  way  to  Egypt.  Manasseh,  son  of 
the  higli  priest  of  Jerusalem,  Joiada,  was  married 
to  the  daughter  of  Sanballat,  and  on  that  account 
was  expelled  by  Nehemiah  from  Jerusalem  (Neh. 
xiii.  28).  He  carried  with  him  no  very  friendly 
feelings  towards  Judea.  And  it  was  through  his 
influence  that  the  rival  worship  was  commenced. 
Josephus  tells  us  that  criminal  and  disaffected 
Jews,  from  time  to  time,  fled  to  Samaria  and  in- 
creased the  number  of  the  opposing  sect.  But 
the  preponderating  number  of  Jews  preserved  the 
Samaritans  from  idolatry.  They  worshipped  Jeho- 
vah, though  with  imperfect  rites  and  with  a  frag- 
mentary Bible.  Whether  the  Samaritan  Penta- 
teuch dates  from  this  time,  or  from  much  later, 
cannot  be  certainly  known.  Ewald  says,  "  At  what 
time  the  temple  on  Gerizim  was  actually  erected, 
and  whether  its  construction  was  begun  by  Ma- 
nasseh, with  the  powerful  aid  of  Sanballat,  we  do 
not  exactly  know.  It  is  true  that  even  in  the 
Persian  times,  and  still  more  in  the  Greek,  the 
Samaritans,  like  the  Jews,  certainly  had  their 
historians.  In  particular  they  possessed  trust- 
worthy records  of  the  succession  and  fortunes  of 
their  chief  priests,  who,  like  the  high  priests  in 
Jerusalem,  constituted  the  only  continuous  links  in 
their  history.     Special  mention  is  made  of  a  chief 


24  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

priest  named  Hezekiab,  who  composed  sacred 
soDffS,  and  was  still  alive  at  the  time  of  Alex- 
ander.  But  it  is  much,  to  be  regretted  that  the 
only  works  which  we  now  possess  from  the  Sama- 
ritans, treating  of  their  own  ancient  history,  are 
of  very  late  date  and  extremely  unsatisfactory. 
So  far  as  we  can  see  from  the  traces  which  still 
survive,  a  small  sanctuary  at  any  rate  was  in 
existence  on  Gerizim  before  Alexander,  chiefly 
under  the  zealous  interest  of  Manasseh  of  Jeru- 
salem, whose  name  continued  to  be  honoured 
amonor  the  Samaritans  for  a  Ions:  time  afterwards 
to  a  quite  remarkable  extent.  A  larger  sanctuary, 
for  which  fresh  permission  from  the  supreme  gov- 
ernment was  requisite,  in  consequence  of  the  neces- 
sary cost  of  building  and  the  continuance  of  large 
expenditure,  was  probably  not  erected  there  until 
the  Greek  supremacy.  It  is  undeniable  that  the 
old  city  of  Samaria  was  still  the  capital  at  the 
time  of  Zerubbabel;  but  the  greater  fame  which 
Shechem  very  soon  acquired  could  only  have  been 
due  to  the  temple  on  Gerizim"  (vol.  v.,  p.  220). 
The  temple  of  the  Samaritans  stood  for  about  two 
centuries.  It  was  destroyed  in  130  B.C.  by  the 
high  priestly  ruler,  John  Hyrcanus  I.  (135-105 
B.C.)  The  feeling  of  enmity  against  the  Jews  was 
promoted  by  the  building  of  the  Samaritan  temple ; 


THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE.  25 

and  it  found  many  occasions  of  violent  expression 
iu  subsequent  times  down  to  the  clays  of  our  Lord, 
when  "  the  Jews  had  no  dealings  with  the  Sama- 
ritans" (John  iv.  9).  But  it  is  due  to  this 
separation  and  enmity  between  the  two  peoples 
that  the  Samaritans  preserved  their  copy  of  the 
Pentateuch,  and  that  the  Jews  jealously  guarded 
their  own  copy  of  the  Law  and  boasted  of  its 
superior  value.  The  special  care  which  was  taken 
of  the  writings  of  Moses  extended  to  all  the  books 
of  the  Canon,  and  led  to  the  growth  of  a  school  of 
learned  men  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  pre- 
servation of  the  ancient  Scriptures.  But  the  Sama- 
ritan Pentateuch  was  the  support  of  a  false  system 
of  worship  at  Mount  Gerizim,  and  in  order  to 
make  it  so  the  text  was  tampered  with,  while  at 
the  same  time  the  Mosaic  ritual  was  as  far  as 
possible  preserved.  The  command,  Deut.  xxvii. 
4,  to  set  up  the  memorial  stones  at  Mount  Ebal, 
and  to  build  there  an  altar  to  Jehovah,  was 
changed  in  the  Samaritan  copy  of  the  Pentateuch 
into  a  command  to  consecrate  Mount  Gerizim. 
Shechem  had  very  special  sanctity  through  its 
connection  with  the  history  of  the  patriarchs. 

A  recent  writer,  Dr.  Edersheim,  thus  sums  up 
the  history  of  Samaria:  "In  320  B.C.  it  passed 
from  the  rule  of  Syria  to  that  of  Egypt  (Ptolemy 


26  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

Lagi).  Six  years  later  it  again  became  Syrian 
(Antigonus).  Only  three  years  afterwards,  Pto- 
lemy reconquered  and  held  it  for  a  very  short 
time.  On  his  retreat  he  destroyed  the  walls  of 
Samaria  and  other  towns.  In  301  it  passed  again 
by  treaty  into  the  hands  of  Ptolemy;  but  in 
298  it  was  once  more  ravaged  by  the  son  of 
Antigonus.  After  that  it  enjoyed  a  season  of 
quiet  under  Egyptian  rule,  till  the  reign  of  Antio- 
chus  III.,  the  Great,  when  it  again  passed  tem- 
porarily, and  under  his  successor  Selenius  IV. 
(Philopator),  permanently,  under  Syrian  dominion. 
In  the  troublous  times  of  Antiochus  IV.  (Epi- 
phanes)  the  Samaritans  escaped  the  fate  of  the 
Jews  by  repudiating  all  connection  with  Israel, 
and  dedicating  their  temple  to  Jupiter.  In  tlie 
contest  between  Syria  and  the  Maccabees  which 
followed,  the  Samaritans,  as  might  be  expected, 
took  the  part  of  the  former." 

After  the  destruction  of  the  temple  on  Mount 
Gerizim,  the  city  of  Samaria  was  laid  in  ruins 
by  the  sons  of  Hyrcanus,  and  remained  so  for 
about  a  hundred  years,  until,  under  Gabinius, 
and  subsequently  under  Herod,  it  was  rebuilt, 
and  renamed  Sehaste,  in  honour  of  the  Emperor 
Augustus.  But  notwithstanding  all  these  vicis- 
situdes in  the  external   condition  of  the  Samari- 


THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE.  27 

tans,  they  seem  to  have  preserved  some  remnants 
of  religious  life  among  them.  In  some  of  the 
Mosaic  observances  they  were  even  stricter  than 
the  Jews  themselves.  At  the  time  of  our  Saviour 
considerable  change  had  taken  place  in  the  views 
and  feelings  of  the  Jews  concerning  them,  and 
whereas  at  one  time  they  were  denounced  as 
unclean,  they  were  then  acknowledged  as  admis- 
sible to  the  synagogue  when  they  had  given  up 
their  attachment  to  Mount  Gerizim  and  estrange- 
ment from  Jerusalem,  and  their  food,  which  was 
once  spoken  of  as  swine's  flesh  in  the  sight  of 
a  Jew,  was  declared  to  be  clean.  It  seems  pro- 
bable that  among  the  remnants  of  the  old  Hebrew 
faith  retained  among  them  were  the  doctrine  of 
the  unity  of  God,  angels  and  devils,  and  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead.  "  They  were  most  strict 
and  zealous  in  what  of  Biblical  or  traditional  law 
they  received,  and,  most  important  of  all,  they 
looked  for  a  Messiah  in  whom  the  promise  would 
be  fulfilled,  that  the  Lord  God  would  raise  up 
a  prophet  from  the  midst  of  them,  like  unto 
Moses,  in  whom  His  words  were  to  be,  and  unto 
whom  they  would  hearken." 

Now  that  a  people  so  closely  akin  to  the  Jews 
should  be  at  their  doors  for  several  hundred  years, 
with  an  alien  worship  and  a  rival  Scripture,  had 


28  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

an  important  effect  upon  the  Jews  themselves  in 
several  particulars.  It  obliged  them  to  look  well 
to  the  authority  of  their  own  religious  rites,  and 
it  promoted  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  and  the 
growth  of  the  school  of  Scribes.  It  seems  to  be  an 
undoubted  fact  that  after  the  restoration  under 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah  there  were  many  who  wrote 
books  (cf.  Eccles.  xii.  12).  The  two  Books  of 
Chronicles  are  a  proof  that  historical  literature 
was  cultivated.  Commentaries  and  expositions 
began  to  abound  (see  2  Chron.  xiii.  22,  where 
the  story  or  commentary  of  the  Prophet  Iddo 
refers  to  some  later  Scriptural  writer).  There  is 
a  tradition  preserved  amoug  the  Rabbinical  writ- 
ings of  a  number  of  learned  men  who  were  called 
the  Great  Synagogue,  including  among  them  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah ;  and  out  of  them  came  the  body  of 
Scribes,  whose  "  one  aim  was  to  promote  reverence 
for  the  Law,  to  make  it  the  groundwork  of  the 
people's  life.  They  would  write  nothing  of  their 
own,  lest  less  worthy  words  should  be  raised  on  a 
level  with  those  of  the  oracles  of  God.  If  inter- 
pretation were  needed,  their  teaching  should  be 
oral  only.  No  precepts  should  be  perpetuated  as 
resting  on  their  authority.  In  the  words  of  later 
Judaism  they  devoted  themselves  to  the  Mihra 
(i.e.  recitation,  reading,  as  in   Neh.  viii.  8),  the 


THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE.  29 

careful  study  of  tlie  text,  and  laid  down  rules  for 
transcribing  it  with  the  most  scrupulous  precision 
(cf.  the  Tract  Sopherim  in  the  Jerusalem  Gemara) " 
(Smith's  Diet.,  Art.  Scribes).  It  is  a  remarkable 
fact  that  there  is  no  writing,  w^hich  has  any  claim 
to  be  received  as  proceeding  from  the  Jewish  com- 
munity as  a  religious  book,  for  a  hundred  years 
after  the  time  of  Ezra ;  a  silence  w'hich  no  doubt 
w^as  the  effect  of  the  labours  and  principles  of  the 
Scribes,  and  contributed  much  to  tbe  preservation 
of  the  Scriptures  in  their  purity.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  fourth  century,  however,  and  after  the 
Greek  period  had  commenced,  it  seems  possible 
that  one  or  two  of  the  Apocryphal  Books  we  now 
possess  appeared.  Ewald  goes  so  far  as  to  place 
both  Baruch  and  Tobit  in  the  fourth  century.  But 
in  this  he  is  followed  by  very  few  critics.  The 
Books  which  were  w^ritten  after  the  rise  of  the 
school  of  Scribes  would  undergo  a  very  severe 
scrutiny.  It  cannot  be  proved  that  any  one  of 
those  included  in  the  Old  Testament  was  wiitten 
after  400  B.C.  That  of  Esther  was  probably  the 
work  of  Mordecai,  and  must  have  been  composed 
not  later  than  450  B.C.  Possibly  parts  of  the 
Chronicles  were  as  late  as  400  B.C.,  though  the 
history  itself  breaks  off  with  Cyrus.  Ezra  and 
Neheraiah  were  written  by  the  men  whose  names 


30  ,     FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

they  bear,  and  tliG  Book  of  Malachi,  as  we  liave 
seen,  was  probably  collected  together  before  the 
death  of  Nehemiah. 

The  Book  of  Baruch  is  so  evidently  a  mere  imi- 
tation of  the  style  of  the  prophets  that  it  could  not 
have  been  published  during  the  generation  which 
remembered  Malachi.  As,  however,  so  great  a 
critic  as  Ewald  places  it  during  the  Persian  period, 
a  passing  reference  to  it  will  help  us  to  understand 
what  was  the  kind  of  religious  life  which  was 
maintained  among  the  Jews  of  that  time.  We 
may  divide  the  book  into  three  portions  : — 

1.  That  which  may  be  regarded  as  an  original 
Hebrew  composition,  probably  the  work  of  some 
Jew  in  Babylon,  following  up  the  suggestions  of 
the  Prophet  Jeremiah,  that  the  people  should  sub- 
mit themselves  patiently  to  the  Lord's  hand.  He 
has  had  before  him  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  Jere- 
miah, and  Daniel,  and  the  Book  of  Psalms,  and  has 
borrowed  from  them  all,  especially  from  Daniel. 
This  portion  extends  from  chapter  i.  i  to  chapter 
iii.  8. 

2.  The  second  part  extends  from  iii.  8  to  v.  9, 
and  was  written  in  Greek  about  the  year  150  B.C. 
It  is  full  of  Alexandrian  thought  and  language,  and 
evidently  was  not  a  translation  from  an  original  in 
Hebrew. 


THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE.  31 

3.  The  last  portion  is  an  epistle  of  Jeremiah,  a 
spurious  composition,  dating  about  a.d.  too,  added 
to  the  main  book  by  some  Christian  writer. 

The  Hebrew  portion,  if  not  composed  during  the 
Babylonish  captivity,  may  be  assigned  to  the  Per- 
sian period.  In  that  case  the  recommendations  to 
submission  to  the  rule  of  the  Babylonian  monarch 
must  be  regarded  as  applying  to  the  Persian  power. 
But  the  objection  to  this  is,  that  there  would  seem 
to  be  scarcely  any  reason  for  such  admonitions,  for 
the  Persians  did  not  oppress  the  returned  captives, 
but  rather  favoured  them.  Ewald  thinks  the 
motive  may  have  been  to  help  the  Jews  to  bear 
the  exactions  and  confusions  resulting  from  the 
wars  between  the  Persians  and  the  Egyptians.  But 
this  appears  far-fetched  and  unnecessary.  It  is 
better  to  suppose  that  some  original  fragment  came 
into  the  hands  of  the  Greek  translator,  and  that 
Baruch,  if  not  the  companion  of  Jeremiah,  lived 
not  very  long  after  him,  possibly  at  the  court  of 
Babylon.  There  is  not,  however,  any  great  value 
in  the  few  chapters  which  seem  to  be  a  relic  of  the 
captivity.  They  contain  nothing  more  than  con- 
fessions and  prayers  taken  from  the  prophets.  In 
so  far  as  they  point  to  a  sense  of  sin  and  acknow- 
ledgment of  Divine  righteousness,  they  testify  to 
real  religious  life.    A  collection  of  money  is  sent 


32     .  rOUE  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

from  the  captive  king  of  Judali  and  his  nobles  to 
Jerusalem,  "  And  they  said,  Behold,  we  have  sent 
you  money  to  buy  you  burnt  offerings,  and  sin 
offerings,  and  incense,  and  prepare  ye  incense,  and 
offer  upon  the  altar  of  the  Lord  our  God  :  and  pray 
for  the  life  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon, 
and  for  the  life  of  Belshazzar,  his  son,  that  their 
days  may  be  upon  earth  as  the  days  of  heaven  : 
and  the  Lord  will  give  us  strength,  and  lighten  our 
eyes,  and  we  shall  live  under  the  shadow  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, king  of  Babylon,  and  under  the  shadow 
of  Belshazzar,  his  son,  and  we  shall  serve  them 
many  days,  and  find  favour  in  their  sight  "  (chapter 
i.  10-12). 

Now,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Jeremiah  did  recom- 
mend this  peaceful  submission  to  the  king  of  Baby- 
lon, as  we  see  in  his  29th  chapter.  Ewald's  theory 
is,  that  some  late  writer  in  the  fourth  century  is 
writing  as  if  Baruch,  the  companion  and  assistant 
of  the  prophet,  were  sent  on  a  commission  from  his 
master  to  the  captives,  and  indited  a  letter  to  the 
Holy  Land  in  the  cause  of  the  captive  people.  He 
thinks  that  it  was  written  at  the  time  of  dangerous 
risings  against  the  Persians.  But  such  risings  were 
quite  local  in  their  character,  and  not  of  sufficient 
importance  to  account  for  the  origin  of  the  book. 
Moreover,  the  very  distinct  separation  of  the  latter 


THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE.  33 

part  from  the  former  makes  it  impossible  to  sustain 
the  theory.  Professor  J.  J.  Kneucker,  in  his  very 
learned  work  published  in  1879,  has  gone  very 
thoroughly  into  the  critical  question  as  to  the 
autlienticity  and  antiquity  of  the  Book  of  Baruch, 
and  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  it  proceeded  from 
the  Pharisaic  school  after  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  that  it  aimed  at  the  revival  of  Jewish 
feeling  under  the  Roman  supremacy.  But  while  this 
view  is  widely  separated  from  Ewald's,  it  seems 
scarcely  tenable.  The  small  portion  which  har- 
monises with  the  spirit  of  the  ancient  prophets,  if 
it  be  a  genuine  relic  of  the  Captivity,  must  have 
served  to  keep  alive  in  the  Jewish  Church  feelings 
of  penitence,  and  hope  in  the  future  glory  of  Israel. 
"  0  Lord  Almighty,  God  of  Israel,  the  soul  in 
anguish,  the  troubled  spirit  crieth  unto  Thee. 
Hear,  0  Lord,  and  have  mercy ;  for  Thou  art 
merciful :  and  have  pity  upon  us,  because  we  have 
sinned  before  Tliee.  For  Thou  endurest  for  ever, 
and  we  perish  utterly  "  (chapter  iii.  1-3).  And  the 
promise  is  repeated,  "  I  will  bring  them  again  into 
the  land  which  I  promised  with  an  oath  unto  their 
fathers,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  they  shall 
be  lords  of  it,  and  I  will  increase  them,  and  they 
shall  not  be  diminished.  And  I  will  make  an  ever- 
lasting covenant  with  them  to  be  their  God,  and 

c 


34  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

they  sliall  be  my  people  ;  and  I  will  no  more  drive 
my  people  of  Israel  out  of  the  land  that  I  have 
given  them  "  (chapter  ii.  34,  35). 

On  the  whole  it  is  impossible  to  attach  any  im- 
portance to  the  book.  It  was  not  noticed  among 
the  early  fathers  of  the  Christian  Church.  And 
when  it  was  quoted,  as  it  was  by  the  writers  of 
the  third  century,  it  was  taken  to  be  the  genuine 
work  of  Jeremiah.  It  cannot  be  said  to  break  the 
silence  of  the  fourth  century  B.C.  We  are  left  to 
face  the  fact,  that  after  the  time  of  Malachi  no 
Scripture  was  produced,  nor  was  the  religious  state 
of  the  people  such  as  would  suggest  the  likelihood 
of  any  writing  being  added  to  the  sacred  rolls.  As 
we  shall  see  in  subsequent  chapters,  the  formality 
which  increased  with  the  spiritual  decline  of  the 
nation  became  itself  a  preservative  against  the 
multiplication  of  sacred  books.  The  sense  of  a 
departed  inspiration,  as  it  became  deeper  in  the 
course  of  time,  "  hedged  about  the  law  "  with  a 
rampart  of  superstitious  reverence.  Such  rever- 
ence promoted  the  work  of  transcription.  The 
law  which  authorised  the  Temple-worship  at  Jeru- 
salem had  to  be  maintained ;  and  the  same  class  of 
learned  men  who  employed  themselves  in  searching 
the  Scriptures  for  the  support  of  the  priesthood, 
devoted   themselves  to   the  preservation    of   the 


THE  JEWISH  PONTIFICATE.  35 

historical  and  prophetic  writings,  which  came  to 
be  held  in  a  respect  only  a  little  lower  than  that 
which  surrounded  the  Pentateuch.  The  practical 
discipline  which  the  Jews  received  during  the  time 
of  their  captivity,  and  for  a  long  period  after  their 
restoration,  must  have  raised  in  their  estimation 
the  value  of  those  Books  of  Scripture  which  spoke 
to  them  of  their  future.  This  we  can  see  from 
the  fact  that  the  Samaritans,  who  were  not  in 
sympathy  with  such  prospects,  did  not  appreciate 
the  prophets,  and  retained  only  the  Books  of  Moses. 
It  was  probably  during  the  Persian  period  that 
the  learned  Jews  fully  recognised  the  necessity  of 
closing  their  Canon  ;  and  the  tradition  which  tells 
us  of  "  the  Great  Synagogue,"  to  whose  labours  the 
completion  of  the  Canon  was  due,  gives  the  date 
of  Simon  the  Just  soon  after  the  commencement  of 
the  Grecian  period  (3 10-290  B.C.),  as  the  last  date 
in  connection  with  that  important  body  which  is 
said  to  have  continued  for  two  centuries.  It  has 
been  observed  by  Canon  Westcott  that  there  is  no 
sound  authority  for  the  belief  that  any  book  was 
added  to  the  Old  Testament  between  the  time  of 
Malachi  and  that  of  Christ.  The  Greek  Books 
which  constitute  the  Apocrypha  were  no  doubt 
added  to  the  Septuagint  at  a  very  late  period. 


36  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  COURT  OF  THE   GENTILES. 

'PHERE  are  periods  in  the  history  of  nations 
which  seem  to  be  blanks  ;  when  there  is  little 
or  notlnng  to  record,  or  when  a  state  of  external 
disorder  and  confusion  has  clouded  the  atmosphere 
of  the  national  life  to  so  great  an  extent  that  no 
clear  outlines  of  historical  delineation  can  be  dis- 
cerned. It  has  already  been  remarked  that  the 
century  which  followed  the  close  of  the  Scripture 
canon,  from  about  420  B.C.  to  320  B.C.,  must  be 
described  as  one  of  stagnation  and  decay  in  the 
history  of  the  Jewish  Church.  The  rule  of  the 
high  priests  was  maintained,  but  it  was  a  mere 
preservation  of  the  old  in  its  formal  completeness, 
not  a  development  of  its  vital  elements  in  new 
growth  and  higher  instruction.  There  was,  we  are 
told,  "  a  certain  uniform  culture  of  religion  and 
morals  "  in  the  nation  generally.  But  that  did  not 
hinder  the  process  of  corruption  in  the  higher 
classes.    Neither  was  the  spirit  of  the  people  roused 


THE  COURT  OF  THE  GENTILES.         37 

by  any  messenger  who  appealed  to  its  national  voca- 
tion or  rebuked  its  slothful  lethargy.  The  State, 
which  had  been  restored  by  the  remarkable  favour 
of  the  Persian  monarchy,  was  in  considerable  dan- 
ger when  the  Persian  Empire  was  broken  up  into 
satrapies,  and  threatened  by  the  rising  power  of 
Greece.  The  New  Jerusalem,  which  had  been 
erected  round  the  new  Temple,  depended  upon 
the  maintenance  of  the  priesthood.  And  the 
priests  knew  their  power,  and  took  care  that  the 
people  should  feel  it.  But  Divine  Providence 
ordained  a  course  of  external  events  which  won- 
derfully changed  the  spiritual  history  of  the  Jewish 
people. 

The  Greek  period,  as  it  is  generally  called,  which 
might  be  said  to  begin  with  the  defeat  of  Xerxes 
by  the  Greeks,  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century, 
and  which  culminated  in  the  conquest  of  Syria  by 
Alexander  the  Great  in  ^^iZ  ^-C-j  brought  about 
most  radical  changres  in  the  Jewish  Church ;  and 
it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  these  changes 
should  be  thoroughly  examined  and  understood 
in  order  to  appreciate  the  subsequent  appearance 
of  new  lights,  or  what  claimed  to  be  so,  on  the 
horizon.  The  great  military  monarchies  of  Asia 
were  under  the  necessity,  in  order  to  maintain 
their  prestige,  to   undertake   from   time  to  time 

283646 


38  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

some  great  enterprise  of  conquest.  The  Persian 
kingdom  in  480  B.C.  was  driven  by  the  force  of 
circumstances  to  lead  its  armies  towards  the  west. 
Egypt  had  succumbed  to  its  sword.  India  on  the 
east  had  been  conquered.  Thrace  and  Macedonia 
had  vainly  resisted  its  progress.  It  remained 
to  descend  from  the  hisrher  and  more  moun- 
tainous  regions,  to  the  fruitful  plains  and  weU- 
watered  fields  of  Greece.  An  immense  multitude 
of  soldiers  was  collected  together,  and  a  large 
and  well-appointed  fleet.  But  both  availed  no- 
thing against  the  heroism  and  intellectual  force 
of  that  extraordinary  people,  whose  rapid  develop- 
ment within  the  small  territory  of  the  Greek 
coasts  and  Peloponnesus  is  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world.  For  a  hundred  years  after  the 
defeat  and  retirement  of  Xerxes  the  Persian 
monarchs  sought  to  recover  their  military  power ; 
partly  by  corrupting  Greek  statesmen,  and  taking 
advantage  of  the  internal  troubles  of  Greece,  and 
partly  by  expeditions  against  revolting  satraps. 
But  the  end  could  not  be  far  ofi*,  and  it  was 
brought  about  by  that  extraordinary  man  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  who  burned  to  revenge  the 
ancient  dishonour  of  his  Macedonian  fatherland 
by  the  conquest  of  its  enemy.  A  weak  prince 
was  seated  on  the   Persian  throne,    Darius   III. 


THE  COURT  OF  THE  GENTILES.         39 

Alexander  was  a  mere  youtli  when  he  crossed 
the  Hellespont  and  invaded  Asia  Minor  in  the 
spring  of  334  B.C.  Darius  despised  the  young 
man's  inexperience,  and  left  the  extremities  of 
his  empire  unguarded.  The  battle  of  Granlcus, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sardis,  opened  the  eyes 
of  the  careless  and  weak-minded  Persian.  All 
Asia  Minor  lay  at  the  feet  of  the  Macedonian 
conqueror.  Persia  was  compelled  to  act  on  the 
defensive,  while  Alexander  marched  rapidly  and 
without  opposition  towards  Babylonia.  Two  great 
battles,  Issus  and  Arbela — the  one,  as  it  were,  at 
the  gate  of  the  Persian  stronghold,  and  the  other 
in  the  very  chosen  spot  of  Persia,  the  Plains  of 
Adiabene — brought  the  conflict  to  an  end  in  the 
utter  overthrow  of  the  Eastern  despotism.  All 
Syria  then  submitted  to  Alexander.  Damascus, 
Tyre,  Si  don  fell  into  his  hands,  and  he  became 
the  prominent  figure  of  the  world.  That  he  was 
a  cruel  man  there  can  be  no  doubt  at  all,  as  we 
see  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of  Zechariah 
in  the  siege  and  destruction  of  Gaza  (ix.  5) ;  but 
he  was  not  without  his  better  impulses,  and  the 
influence  on  his  mind  of  his  great  teacher,  the 
philosopher  Aristotle,  may  have  prepared  him  to 
deal  somewhat  more  considerately  with  a  people 
so    remarkable,    and    so   famed    for  wisdom    and 


40  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

virtue,  as  the  Jews.  Josephus  in  his  work, 
"Against  Apion"  (i.  22),  refers  to  the  conferences 
which  Aristotle  is  said  to  have  had  with  a  learned 
and  philosophical  Jew,  as  related  by  Clearchus, 
one  of  Aristotle's  disciples.  It  is  impossible  to 
determine  whether  there  is  any  truth  in  this  story 
or  not.  But  it  is  certain  that  Aristotle,  before 
he  became  the  tutor  of  Alexander,  was  in  Mysia, 
and  married  there  a  relative  of  the  King  of 
Atarnea,  at  whose  court  he  is  said  to  have  found 
the  Jewish  teacher.  There  is  no  difficulty,  there- 
fore, in  accounting  for  the  origin  of  the  story. 
The  one  consideration  which  weiohs  ao^ainst  its 
credibility  is  the  carelessness  of  Josephus  and 
his  evident  desire  to  glorify  his  nation.  The 
conduct  of  Alexauder,  however,  certainly  requires 
explanation.  He  was  wounded  at  the  siege  of 
Gaza,  and  was  no  doubt  greatly  enraged  against 
that  city  for  its  stubborn  defence.  In  his  cruel 
passion  he  put  ten  thousand  citizens  to  death, 
and  sold  the  rest  as  slaves,  with  the  women  and 
children.  It  is  said  that  he  put  the  commander 
to  death  in  the  most  barbarous  fashion,  fastening 
his  feet  to  his  chariot  by  thongs  thrust  through 
the  soles,  and  dragging  "  him  round  the  city  with 
swift  horses."  We  learn  from  Josephus  that  an 
order  of  submission  was   sent  to  Jerusalem   and 


THE  COURT  OF  THE  GENTILES.         41 

received  by  Jaddua,  the  high  priest.  The  answer 
was,  that  the  oath  which  the  Jewish  nation  had 
sworn,  to  serve  Darius,  King  of  Persia,  could  not 
be  violated.  And  Alexander  raved  with  passion, 
and  threatened  Jerusalem  with  destruction.  This 
was  before  his  subjugation  of  Tyre  and  Gaza,  and 
the  circumstances  attending  the  prolonged  resist- 
ance of  these  cities  would  certainly  not  tend  to 
allay  the  irritation  of  the  young  and  impetuous 
general,  before  \Yhom  a  whole  empire  had  fallen. 
We  have  already  referred  to  the  extraordinary 
change  which  took  place  in  Alexander's  feelings 
and  conduct  when  he  arrived  at  Jerusalem. 
Whether  the  account  of  his  dream  and  its  ful- 
filment in  the  appearance  of  Jaddua  with  his 
procession  of  priests  be  a  fabrication  or  not,  we 
have  to  face  the  fact  that  not  only  did  Alexander 
spare  the  city,  but  from  that  time  favoured  the 
Jews  in  the  most  remarkable  manner.  It  is  said 
that  certain  predictions  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures 
were  show^n  to  him,  and  that  they  made  a  great 
impression  on  his  mind.  These  were  the  predic- 
tions in  Daniel  vii.  6;  viii.  1-7,  21  ;  xi.  3  ;  and 
that  in  Zech.  ix.  1-8,  concerning  the  cities  wLicli 
he  had  just  subdued.  The  Jews  were  freed  from 
tribute  in  the  Sabbatical  year ;  they  were  to  have 
entire  liberty  to  follow  out   their  own   religious 


42  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

institutions  and  laws ;  and  it  is  said  that  at  the 
same  time  Alexander  invited  the  Jews,  as  many  as 
pleased,  to  join  his  army  with  tlie  same  indul- 
gences, which  invitation  was  accepted,  according 
to  the  testimony  of  Hecatseus,  as  recorded  by 
Josephus.  Such  treatment  is  an  indication  that 
the  Jews  were  regarded  as  an  exceptional  people. 
Alexander  was  himself  full  of  intelligence,  and  he 
may  have  discerned  an  elevation  of  mind  and  char- 
acter among  the  Jews  which  led  to  bis  milder 
dealings  with  them.  At  all  events,  it  is  an  indis- 
putable fact  that  from  the  time  of  Alexander's 
visit  to  Jerusalem,  332  B.C.,  commenced  a  new 
period  in  the  national  history.  They  continued 
for  more  than  a  century  to  be  ftivoured  by  rulers 
and  princes,  and  their  intellectual  qualities  were 
rapidly  developed  under  the  fostering  influence  of 
the  Ptolemies,  so  that  they  rose  in  some  of  their 
Egyptian  representatives  to  the  highest  eminence 
as  thinkers  and  scholars. 

It  has  been  remarked  by  Ewald  that  Alexander 
was  himself  a  type  in  his  own  person  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  Greco-Macedonian  empire.  There  was 
great  intensity  and  marvellous  daring,  but  little 
steadfastness  and  permanence,  and  fearful  corrup- 
tion. The  conquests  of  Alexander  were  like  the 
raging  of  a  sudden   storm,  which  "  convulsed  all 


THE  COURT  OF  THE  GENTILES.  43 

the  kingdoms  to  their  very  depths,  and  hurled 
them  agcainst  one  another,  and  if  they  were  not 
instantly  dashed  to  pieces,  roused  them  violently 
to  assume  new  forms."  "  In  Israel,  also,  at  once 
so  old  and  so  young,  far  more  violent  changes  were 
speedily  produced  by  this  storm  and  its  after- 
effects, than  by  the  Persian  supremacy.  On 
the  soil  of  its  ancient  fatherland  it  had  again 
acquired  sufficient  strength  and  firmness  to  take 
a  more  active  part  in  the  mighty  efforts  and  new 
destinies  of  the  world.  The  past  had  secured  to  it 
enough  preparatory  culture,  and  recent  vicissitudes 
had  sufficiently  excited  and  strained  its  attention, 
to  prevent  it  from  remaining  unaffected  by  the 
peculiar  characteristic  of  the  Greek  spirit,  to  ren- 
der it  susceptible  to  the  powerful  attractions  of  its 
charm,  and  to  enable  it  speedily  to  rival  it  in 
everything.  When  the  Israelite  and  the  Greek 
were  first  brought  into  contact,  it  was  inevitable 
that  the  union  and  fusion  of  the  two  should  appear 
easy.  Israel  had  saved  enough  from  the  high  cul- 
ture of  its  ancient  days.  Activity  of  mind  and  a 
readiness  to  learn  were  common  to  both  nations ; 
and  there  were,  in  addition,  many  reasons  why  the 
greater  purity  of  morals,  for  which  Israel  was  dis- 
tinguished among  many  Asiatic  nations,  could  be 
nothing  but  acceptable  to  the  Greek  ruler.     But 


44  FOUH  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

tlie  growing  fusioQ  only  brought  the  deeper-seated 
antagonisms  between  the  nationalities  and  religions 
on  either  side  into  sharper  collision.  In  breaking, 
therefore,  the  heavy  shell  which  still  covered  Israel, 
and  bringing  in  the  largest  amount  of  activity  and 
freedom  possible  at  the  time,  the  Greek  age  forced 
the  whole  spirit  which  prevailed  during  that  period 
of  the  history  into  the  most  violent  labour  and  an 
attitude  of  the  most  energetic  decision"  (vol.  v., 
pp.  223-4). 

One  of  the  most  influential  of  Alexander's  wars 
was  that  which  he  carried  on  in  Egypt ;  and  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  events  of  that  Egyptian  career 
was  the  selection  of  a  new  harbour,  opposite  the 
island  of  Pharos,  and  the  order  which  was  given 
for  a  city  to  be  built  there  and  named  Alexandria. 
This  was  in  the  same  year  with  his  visit  to 
Jerusalem,  332  B.C.,  and  before  his  final  victories 
over  Persia.  The  death  of  the  great  Macedonian 
took  place  at  the  city  of  Babylon,  in  the  spring  of 
323  B.C.,  chiefly  through  his  own  debaucheries. 
His  body  was  embalmed,  and  after  two  years 
carried  to  Egypt,  where  it  was  interred,  first  at 
Memphis,  and  subsequently  in  his  new  city  of 
Alexandria.  His  new  and  rapidly  conquered 
empire  had  yet  to  be  consolidated,  and  for  this  pur- 
pose it  was  divided  among  his  generals  and  minis- 


THE  COURT  OF  THE  GENTILES.  45 

ters  by  Perdiccas,  the  regent  of  Macedonia.  The 
name  of  Ptolemy  Lagus,  to  whom  Egypt  was 
assigned,  is  associated  for  some  years  to  come  with 
the  Jewish  people ;  for  several  provinces  were 
speedily  subjugated  by  the  Egyptian  ruler,  Judea, 
Samaria,  Phoenicia,  and  Coelo-Syria,  and  it  is  said 
that  Ptolemy  went  himself  to  Jerusalem  for  the 
purpose  of  sacrificing  in  the  Temple,  and  declared 
himself  master  of  the  country.  One  form  of  the 
story  is,  that  he  took  advantage  of  the  Sabbath,  on 
which  he  knew  that  the  Jews  would  make  no 
resistance,  and  seized  the  city  without  striking  a 
blow.  Many  thousands  of  Jews  were  on  this 
occasion  taken  from  Judea  to  Egypt,  and  many 
others  followed  them  voluntarily,  so  that  Egypt 
soon  became  flocked  with  them.  They  manned  the 
garrison ;  they  formed  part  of  the  army ;  and  they 
were  settled  with  special  privileges  in  Alexandria, 
being  placed  on  an  equality  with  the  Macedonians 
there,  so  that  they  bad  much  to  do  with  the  first 
formation  of  that  new  commercial  centre,  where, 
we  maybe  sure,  their  remarkable  business  capacities 
would  find  abundant  scope  as  the  advantages  of  the 
city  were  developed.  Josephus  refers  to  letters  of 
Alexander  and  Ptolemy  which  were  extant  in  his 
time,  and  to  the  testimony  of  the  writings  of 
Hecatseus,  which,  however,  are  now  lost  to  us. 


46  FOUR  CENTUKIES  OF  SILENCE. 

It  will  be  necessary,  before  we  proceed  with  tliis 
account  of  the  Jewish  religion,  to  estimate  the  in- 
fluence of  Alexandria  upon  the  nation ;  for  the 
migration  which  took  place  was  so  large  and  long 
continued  that,  from  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century  B.C.,  it  may  be  said  there  were  tvjo  Jewish 
nations,  one  in  Judea  and  the  other  in  Egypt. 
It  was  little  more  than  the  project  of  a  com- 
mercial centre  at  Alexandria  which  was  due  to 
the  genius  and  insight  of  the  great  conqueror  him- 
self. The  realisation  of  that  project  was  the  work 
of  a  man  whose  greatness  rivalled  that  of  Alex- 
ander. Ptolemy  I.  was  the  son  of  Lagus,  a  mere 
Greek  adventurer,  and  his  mother  was  a  woman  of 
low  repute,  but  at  the  Court  of  Philip  of  Macedon 
he  rose  to  eminence,  as  the  intimate  friend  of  the 
heir  to  the  throne  and  an  able  soldier.  A  clear- 
minded,  acute,  and  powerful  intellect,  thoroughly 
Greek  in  its  character,  was  united  in  him  with  all 
the  energy  and  determination  of  a  great  general. 
His  advice  it  was  that  led  to  the  partition  of  the 
Macedonian  empire,  and  his  shrewdness  which 
selected  Egypt  for  himself.  But  he  was  no  mere 
worshipper  of  material  wealth.  He  aimed  at  the 
highest  ends;  the  promotion  of  the  prosperity  of 
his  subjects  through  their  intellectual  and  moral 
elevation.     "  Mind  was  the  secret  of  Greek  power ; 


THE  COURT  OF  THE  GENTILES.         47 

for  that  Ptolemy  would  work.  He  would  have  an 
aristocracy  of  intellect;  he  would  gather  round 
him  the  wise  men  of  the  world,  and  he  would 
develop  to  the  highest  the  conception  of  Philip 
when  he  made  Aristotle  the  tutor  of  his  son  Alex- 
ander. The  consequences  of  that  attempt  were 
written  in  letters  of  blood  over  half  the  world. 
Ptolemy  would  attempt  it  once  more  with  gentler 
results.  For  though  he  fought  long,  and  often,  and 
well,,  as  despot  of  Egypt,  no  less  than  as  general  of 
Alexander,  he  was  not  at  heart  a  man  of  blood, 
and  made  peace  the  end  of  all  his  wars  "  (Kiiigsley, 
"  Alexandria  and  her  Schools,"  page  14).  In  carry- 
ing out  the  ideas  of  the  conqueror,  Ptolemy  re- 
solved that  Alexandria  should  not  only  be  a 
metropolis  of  trade,  but  of  learning  as  well. 
According  to  his  lights  he  revived  religion,  and 
founded  the  celebrated  Alexandrian  Library  aud 
Museum.  This  latter  was  of  much  importance,  as 
the  collection  of  books  in  it  was  a  gathering-place 
of  the  learned  under  the  protection  of  the  ruler, 
and  it  was  erected  close  to  the  royal  palace.  It 
was  a  vast  building  with  porticoes,  where  the  great 
scholars  could  meet  and  converse;  lecture  -  rooms 
where  they  could  address  audiences ;  a  banqueting- 
hall  where  they  could  enjoy  festivity  and  put 
forth  their  witty  sallies ;  and  a  staff  of  teachers 


48  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

supported  at  the  royal  expense,  together  with 
collections  of  curiosities  and  botanical  and  zoo- 
logical gardens.  Hence  arose  very  rapidly  into 
existence  and  working  the  celebrated  Alexandria 
School,  numbering  among  its  scholars  eminent 
mathematicians,  artists,  and  metaphysicians,  and 
men  of  culture  in  almost  all  departments  of 
knowledge. 

The  city  of  Alexandria  was  divided  into  three 
regions :  one  of  which  was  named  the  Jewish 
Quarter  (Eegio  Judaeorum),  the  others  Brucheium 
and  Rhacotis,  that  is,  the  Greek  Quarter  and  the 
Egyptian  Quarter.  The  number  of  the  Jews  it  is 
very  difficult  to  estimate  with  any  certainty,  but 
in  the  time  of  Philo,  that  is,  shortly  before  the 
Christian  era,  they  were  reckoned  at  one  million, 
and  are  said  to  have  formed  two-fifths  of  the 
population.  It  was  the  policy  of  Ptolemy  to 
favour  the  Jews.  They  were  not  only  granted  civil 
privileges,  but  we  can  have  little  doubt  that  some 
of  their  learned  men  were  admitted  into  the 
highest  circle  of  the  Alexandrian  University, 
where  their  Jewish  wisdom  would  have  full  scope 
to  influence  the  Greek  mind,  just  as,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Greek  Philosophy  and  Science  would,  in 
turn,  modify  the  views  of  Jewish  teachers.  We 
must  here  refer  to  the  writinofs  of  Hecata3us  of 


THE  COURT  OF  THE  GENTILES.  49 

Abdera,  wlio  is  said  to  have  published  a  work  giv- 
ing an  account  of  the  Jews  during  the  reign  of 
Ptolemy.  The  reality  and  genuineness  of  this 
work,  which  has  not  come  down  to  us,  has  been 
doubted.  (See  Origen  against  Celsus  (i.)  and  Eich- 
hom's  "  Bibliothek  ").  But  the  time  of  its  appear- 
ance was  favourable  to  the  production  of  such  a 
book,  and  there  seems  no  improbability  in  its  being 
written  by  a  Greek.  Josephus  stands  up  boldly  for 
its  authority.  In  this  work  it  is  said  there  was  an 
account  of  a  certain  chief  priest  of  the  Jews,  named 
Hezekiah,  who  went  voluntarily  to  Egypt  at  the 
time  when  Ptolemy  invited  them  to  enter  his 
service.  He  was  sixty  years  old,  and  much  re- 
spected among  his  own  people;  learned  and 
eloquent,  and  skilful  in  business.  "  This  vener- 
able man  became  acquainted  with  us,  and  he 
read  to  some  of  his  friends  a  description  of  the 
peculiarities  of  his  nation,  for  he  had  with  him  a 
written  account  of  their  institutions  and  civil 
polity."  We  may  add  to  this  reference  to  Heze- 
kiah the  testimony  which  Hecatseus  bears  to  the 
steadfastness  and  purity  of  the  Jews  and  their 
superiority  to  superstitions  which  prevailed  at  that 
time.  The  following  singular  incidents  will  illus- 
trate the  general  tone  of  his  remarks  : — "  As  I  was 
once  travelling  by  the  Red  Sea,  there  was  one  among 

D 


50  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

the  horsemen  who  attended  us  named  Masollam,  a 
brave  and  strong  man,  and  according  to  the  testi- 
mony of  all  the  Greeks  and  barbarians,  a  very  skil- 
ful archer.  Now  when  the  whole  multitude  was  on 
the  way,  an  augur  called  out  to  them  to  stand  still, 
and  this  man  inquired  the  reason  of  their  halting. 
The  augur  showed  him  a  bird,  and  told  him  that  if 
that  bird  remained  where  he  was,  it  would  be 
better  for  them  all  to  remain  ;  if  he  flew  on,  they 
might  proceed;  but  if  he  flew  back,  they  must 
return.  The  Jew  said  nothing,  but  bent  his  bow 
and  shot  the  bird  to  the  ground.  This  act 
off'ended  the  augur  and  some  others,  and  they 
began  to  utter  imprecations  against  the  Jew, 
but  he  replied,  'Why  are  you  so  foolish  as  to 
take  care  of  this  unfortunate  bird?  How  could 
this  fowl  give  us  any  wise  directions  respect- 
ing our  journey,  when  he  could  not  save  his  own 
life  ?  Had  he  known  anything  of  futurity,  he 
surely  would  not  have  come  here  to  be  killed  by 
the  arrow  of  Masollam  the  Jew ' "  (Jos.,  Ag.  Ap. 
i.  22).  "Wherever  the  Jews  went,"  says  Ewald, 
"  they  carried  with  them  their  ancestral  faith, 
and  the  peculiarly  tenacious  and  inflexible  pride 
which  was  so  closely  knit  with  it.  They  were 
conscious  of  being  raised  above  the  thousand  forms 
of  heathen  superstition,  and  accordingly  felt  them- 


THE  COURT  OP  THE  GENTILES.        51 

selves  everywhere  impelled,  among  the  heathen,  to 
maintain  or  aspire  after  a  certain  elevation  of  life  ; 
especially  when  they  came  to  be  sought  for  by  so 
many  potentates  of  the  time.  When  the  Jews 
serving  in  Alexander's  army  were  set  in  Babylon 
to  assist  in  restoring  the  temple  of  Belus,  they 
obstinately  refused ;  and  those  who  lived  in  Pales- 
tine destroyed  all  the  altars  which  the  first 
Macedonians  tried  to  erect  in  their  country." 

The  two  motives  which  wrought  in  the  minds  of 
the  Jewish  emigrants,  to  maintain  their  religion, 
and  yet  promote  their  influence  and  prosperity 
among  the  strange  people  with  whom  they  mingled, 
led  them  to  strive  jealously  for  privileges  and 
position,  so  that  they  secured  to  themselves  a 
large  degree  of  power.  "In  every  city  they  en- 
deavoured to  secure  a  magistracy  of  their  own, 
to  form  an  exclusive  community,  not  merely  for 
their  religious  duties,  but  even  for  everything 
relating  to  taxes  and  property,  so  as  to  have  all 
their  internal  disputes,  whether  about  sacred  or 
civil  matters,  adjusted  within  their  own  limits. 
In  each  town  of  any  size,  accordingly,  they  con- 
stituted a  Politeuma,  i.e.  an  organised  community 
with  a  large  body  of  gerontes  (senators),  a  small 
number  of  arclions  (executive  officers),  and  a  chief, 
who,  in  a  country  of  importance,  might  even  bear 


52  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

the  title  and  dignity  of  an  ethnarch,  or  national 
prince  ;  in  Alexandria  lie  was  generally  designated 
alaharch.  This  struggle  on  the  part  of  the  Jews 
resident  among  the  heathen,  for  higher  respect, 
liberty  and  independence,  was  so  vigorous,  and  the 
air  of  the  Greek  age  so  loild,  that  even  those  who 
had  been  at  first  transported  as  prisoners  or  slaves 
almost  everywhere  regained  their  freedom,  just  as 
at  a  later  day  the  community  of  Rome  was  formed 
chiefly  out  of  the  liberti  settled  on  the  other  bank 
of  the  Tiber." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  while  the  Jews  thus 
maintained  a  very  independent  position  in  Egypt 
and  elsewhere  among  the  heathen,  they  kept  up' 
for  a  considerable  period  very  closely  their  con- 
nection with  Jerusalem.  This  they  did  by  regu- 
larly contributing  to  the  support  of  the  Temple, 
and  by  the  synagogue  worship,  which  helped  them 
to  realise  their  brotherhood  and  nationality.  But 
it  was  not  posaible  for  so  great  a  force  as  that 
which  was  represented  in  the  Greek  mind  and 
spirit  to  be  brought  into  contact  with  the  Jews 
without  greatly  modifying  their  religious  character. 
This  we  shall  show  in  subsequent  chapters  ;  but 
meanwhile  we  must  call  the  reader's  attention  to 
the  fact  that  .hitherto,  while  the  Jews  possessed  in 
their  sacred  books  treasures  of  wisdom  and  know- 


THE  COUET  OF  THE  GENTILES.         53 

ledge  given  tliem  directly  by  the  Divine  Spirit, 
which  lifted  them  both  morally  and  spiritually 
high  above  heathen  nations,  they  had  been  very 
little  Tinder  the  influence  of  great  philosophical 
minds;  indeed,  philosoj)hy  strictly  so-called  was 
unknown  among  them.  At  Alexandria  there  were 
two  main  currents  of  intellectual  influence,  the 
mathematical  and  the  metaphysical,  which  began 
to  bear  upon  the  Jewish  teachers  very  decidedly 
from  the  time  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  the  suc- 
cessor of  Ptolemy  I.  The  Greek  version  of  the 
Old  Testament  was  made  by  the  command  of  the 
Egyptian  monarch.  But  it  would  be  a  misrepre- 
sentation to  say,  that  the  one  sole  ground  of  that 
command  was  to  gratify  the  curiosity  of  the  Greek 
and  Egyptian  population.  The  Jewish  Rabbis 
who  were  employed  in  the  translation  were  as 
truly  under  the  influence  of  the  Greek  spirit,  as 
the  Greeks,  for  whom  the  translation  w^as  made, 
were  under  the  influence  of  Jewish  teaching.  The 
subsequent  history  of  the  Alexandrian  school  of 
Jewish  writers  clearly  shows  that  there  was  an 
intermingling  of  Greek  philosophy  and  Hebrew 
doctrine,  which  produced  a  very  strange  result 
in  a  mystical  theology  as  decidedly  distinct  from 
the  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  as  it  was  from 
the  spirit  of  the  old  Grecian  sages. 


54  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

But  before  we  proceed  to  describe  more  fidly  the 
eflfects  of  Alexandrian  scbolasticism  and  philosophy 
on  the  Jewish  Church,  we  must  glance  at  the  other 
side  of  the  picture,  and  describe  one  prominent 
figure  which  remains  identified  with  the  old  Jewish 
spirit  still  surviving  at  Jerusalem,  and  in  the 
Palestinian  branch  of  the  nation.  In  300  B.C. 
the  liigh  priest  Onias  died,  and  he  was  succeeded 
by  his  son  Simon,  who  is  generally  known  as 
Simon  the  Just.  A  few  words  with  regard  to 
his  character  and  work  will  help  us  to  understand 
the  religious  state  of  the  Jews  during  that  long 
period  of  rest  and  external  prosperity  which  they 
enjoyed  under  the  early  Ptolemies  and  the 
Egyptian  rule.  In  the  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus 
(chapter  1.)  we  find  a  description  of  this  remark- 
able man,  which  will  show  how  he  was  regarded 
by  the  Jews  about  a  hundred  years  after  his 
death.  "  How  was  he  honoured  in  the  midst  of 
the  people  on  his  coming  out  of  the  sanctuary? 
He  was  as  the  morning  star  in  the  midst  of  a 
cloud,  and  as  the  moon  at  the  full :  as  the  sun 
shining  upon  the  temple  of  the  Most  High,  and 
as  the  rainbow  giving  light  in  the  bright  clouds ; 
and  as  the  flower  of  roses  in  the  spring  of  the 
year,  as  lilies  by  the  rivers  of  waters,  and  as  the 
branches  of  the  frankincense-tree  in  the  time  of 


THE  COUET  OF  THE  GENTILES.  55 

summer  :  as  fire  and  incense  in  the  censer,  or  as 
a  vessel  of  beaten  gold  set  with  all  manner  of 
precious  stones,  and  as  a  fine  olive-tree  budding 
forth  fruit,  and  as  a  cypress- tree  which  groweth 
up  to  the  clouds.  When  he  put  on  the  robe 
of  honour,  and  was  clothed  with  the  perfection 
of  glory,  when  he  went  up  to  the  holy  altar,  he 
made  the  garment  of  holiness  honourable."  This 
is  evidently  an  ideal  description  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  most  extreme  ritualism.  Simon  is 
regarded  as  the  ideal  high  priest,  and  his  appear- 
ance is  celebrated  as  the  perfection  of  high  priestly 
splendour,  and  therefore  as  the  central  figure  of 
a  perfect  Temple  service.  It  is  said  in  the  Rabbi- 
nical traditions  that  an  angel  appeared  to  Simon 
every  year  during  his  Pontificate.  The  spirit  of 
his  rule  is  well  represented  in  the  threefold  saying 
which  is  represented  as  the  legacy  of  the  Great 
Synagogue,  or  Assembly  of  Jewish  Divines,  to 
their  successors :  "  Be  careful  in  judgments,  set 
up  many  Talmidim  {i.e.  learned  students),  and 
make  a  hedge  about  the  Thorah  (law)."  On  three 
things,  Simon  said,  the  permanence  of  the  world, 
that  is  of  the  Jewish  world,  depends;  on  the 
Thorah  (faithfulness  to  the  law  and  its  pursuit) ; 
on  worship  (the  non-participation  in  Grecianism, 
i.e.  strict  Judaism) ;    and  in  works  of  righteous- 


56  FOUE  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

uess.  It  is  difficult  to  determine  the  exact  time 
wlien  Simon  lived,  that  is,  whether  the  title 
Simon  the  Just  is  to  be  referred  to  the  first  Simon 
or  the  second  Simon ;  but  it  is  of  little  conse- 
quence to  settle  the  controversy,  as  the  general 
fact  remains  the  same,  that  there  was,  about  the 
commencement  of  the  third  century,  or  a  little 
later,  a  great  reformer  and  spiritual  leader,  who 
did  his  best  to  restore  the  material  structure  of 
the  Temple  and  its  internal  splendour,  and  to 
revive  among  the  people  the  devout  observance 
of  the  law. 

"  All  the  traditions  combine  in  representing 
Simon  as  closing  the  better  days  of  Judaism. 
Down  to  his  time  it  was  always  the  right  hand 
of  the  high  priest  that  drew  the  lot  of  the  con- 
secrated goats;  and  after  his  time  the  left  and 
right  wavered  and  varied.  Down  to  his  time  the 
red  thread  round  the  neck  of  the  scapegoat  turned 
white,  as  a  sign  that  the  sins  of  the  people  were 
forgiven ;  afterwards  its  change  was  quite  un- 
certain. The  candlestick  at  the  entrance  of  the 
Temple  burned,  in  his  time,  without  fail ;  after- 
wards it  often  went  out.  Two  faggots  a  day 
sufficed  to  keej)  the  flame  on  the  altar  alive  in  his 
time;  afterwards  piles  of  wood  were  insufficient. 
In  his  last  year  he  was  said  to  have  foretold  his 


THE  COURT  OF  THE  GENTILES.         57 

death,  from  the  omen  that  whereas  on  all  former 
occasions  he  was  accompai^ied  into  the  Holy  of 
Holies  on  the  Day  of  Atonement,  to  the  entrance 
only,  by  an  old  man  clothed  in  white  from  head 
to  foot ;  in  that  year  his  companion  was  attired 
in  black,  and  followed  him  as  he  went  in  and  came 
out.  These  were  the  forms  in  which  the  later 
Jewish  belief  expressed  the  sentiment  of  his  tran- 
scendent worth,  and  of  the  manifold  changes  which 
were  to  follow  him"  (Stanley,  vol.  iii.,  p.  248). 
There  was  some  remnant  iu  Simon  of  the  old 
reverence  for  purity  of  heart  and  life.  There  was 
a  gentle  spirit  in  him,  which  is  preserved  in  some 
of  the  traditions  concerning  him.  He  is  said  to 
have  hated  the  severe  asceticism  of  the  Nazarites, 
and  when  a  young  man  came  to  be  consecrated, 
he  reluctantly  yielded  to  his  request  to  remove 
all  personal  attractions,  until  he  found  that  the 
vow  was  the  true  offering  of  his  heart,  when  he 
"  embraced  his  brow,  and  exclaimed,  '  Would  that 
there  were  many  such  Nazaiites  in  Israel.'  " 

No  doubt  there  are  some  signs  of  regretful  re- 
membrance of  a  departed  glory  in  the  traditional 
Simon.  He  represents  the  people's  sense  of  their 
own  degeneracy.  But  the  mere  worship  of  a  great 
name  has  little  influence  in  arresting  spiritual  de- 
cline.    Rabbinism  took  the  place  of  devout  study 


58  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

of  the  Old  Testament.  Mere  slavish  Eitualism 
cast  out  spiritual  life.  "  Israel  made  void  the  law 
by  its  traditions.  Under  a  load  of  outward  ordi- 
nances and  observances  its  spirit  had  been  crushed. 
The  religion  as  well  as  the  grand  hope  of  the  Old 
Testament  had  become  externalised  "  (Edersheim). 
Palestine,  while  it  still  held  fast  to  the  letter  of 
the  law,  and,  therefore,  rendered  a  great  service 
to  the  cause  of  religion  by  handing  on  the  Scrip- 
tures, sank  both  ititellectually  and  morally  to  a 
lower  level.  It  was  at  this  time  that  another 
form  of  Judaism  appeared  in  Egypt,  distinguished 
both  by  its  intellectual  form  and  moral  breadth, 
and  thither  our  attention  must  be  carried  awhile. 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  59 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE     SEPTUAGINT. 

TT  has  often  been  observed  that  the  connection  of 
the  Bible  with  history  supplies  one  of  the  most 
convincing  evidences  of  the  Divine  authority  of 
the  written  Word.  There  is  nothing  in  the  whole 
course  of  the  Jewish  annals  more  remarkable  than 
the  series  of  events  which  led  to  the  preparation 
of  the  Greek  version  of  the  Old  Testament.  What 
that  work  has  accomplished  in  the  diffusion  of 
revealed  truth  through  the  world  no  human  mind 
can  ever  estimate.  How  the  way  of  the  Lord  was 
prepared  by  it,  how  it  laid  the  foundations  on 
which  Christianity  itself  built  up  its  higher  and 
fuller  communications,  we  can  never  perfectly 
describe,  although  the  fact  that  it  to  a  large  ex- 
tent superseded  the  Hebrew  Bible,  and  was  for 
a  considerable  period  the  sacred  volume  of  the 
Christian  Church,  must  be  sufficient  to  show  that 
it  was  a  chosen  instrument  of  Divine  providence  in 
the  work  of  human  salvation.     Everything  which 


60  FOUR  CENTXJPvlES  OF  SILENCE. 

throws  light  on  the  earliest  history  of  the  Septua- 
gint  must  therefore  be  of  value  in  looking  forward, 
as  w^e  do,  in  studying  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
Church,  to  the  appearance  of  the  Universal  Eeligion, 
the  one  "  Word  of  God,"  which  shall  break  down 
the  "  middle  wall  of  partition  "  between  Jew  and 
Gentile,  and  "  inake  one  new  man,  so  maJcing 
peace." 

We  have  already  noticed  the  singular  providence 
in  the  favour  shown  towards  the  Jews,  both  by 
the  Persian  monarchs  and  by  the  Macedonian. 
AVhether  the  mind  of  Alexander  the  Great  was 
influenced  by  his  great  teacher  Aristotle,  as  the 
result  of  intercourse  with  learned  Jew^s,  or  whether 
special  Divine  communications  were  sent  to  the 
young  conqueror,  as  he  is  said  to  have  intimated 
when  he  visited  Jerusalem,  it  is  impossible  now  to 
say.  It  is  certain,  that  Alexander  treated  the  Jews 
with  great  indulgence,  and  that  his  policy  w^as 
followed  by  the  Ptolemies  of  Egypt,  who  for  a 
very  long  period  had  possession  of  Palestine. 
Ptolemy  Lagi,  in  320  B.C.,  sent  his  general,  Ni- 
canor,  to  subdue  Judea,  Samaria,  Phoenicia,  and 
Ccelo- Syria.  After  a  short  war  Laomedon,  the 
general  of  the  Syrian  monarch  Antiochus,  was 
driven  out,  and  the  people  were  glad  to  exchange 
a  time  of  war  and  uncertainty  for  the  rule  of  a 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  61 

benevolent  prince.  We  are  informed  by  Josephus 
that  on  this  occasion  Jerusalem  was  again  visited 
by  a  conqueror,  and  Ptolemy  is  said  to  have  sacri- 
ficed in  the  Temple  after  the  example  of  the  Mace- 
donian conqueror,  Alexander.  It  is  also  stated 
by  Agatharchides  that  the  possession  of  Jerusalem 
was  the  result  of  a  stratagem,  the  Egyptian  ruler 
entering  the  city  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  when  it 
was  not  lawful  for  the  people  to  resist  his  entrance 
by  force  of  arms.  But  there  was  doubtless  little 
inclination  on  the  part  of  the  Jews  to  oppose  one 
who  was  evidently  so  well  disposed  to  protect 
them.  Many  Jews  and  many  Samaritans  were 
taken  prisoners  and  carried  to  Egypt  at  this  time. 
But,  though  nominally  slaves,  they  were  very  soon 
liberated  and  employed  by  Ptolemy  in  defence  of 
his  garrisons.  Some  were  sent  to  Cyrene.  Some 
were  located  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Alexandria, 
privileges  being  granted  them  similar  to  those 
granted  by  Alexander  the  Great  to  Macedonian 
settlers.   , 

It  is  not  wonderful  that  after  this  time  many 
Jews  emigrated  from  Palestine,  and  shared  in 
those  remarkable  regulations  by  which  they  were 
provided  with  a  new  sphere  of  ambition  and  a 
prospect  of  great  influence  and  prosperity.  Jose- 
phus informs  us  that  letters  were  extant  in  his 


62  FOUR  CENTURIES  OP  SILENCE. 

time,  botli  of  Alexander  and  Ptolemy,  confirming 
these  facts,  which  are  also  described  by  Hecatseus 
— although  we  are  not  able  to  prove  that  the  so- 
called  history  of  Hecatseus  was  genuine.  There 
was  no  part  of  the  world  where  the  Jews  congre- 
gated in  such  large  numbers  as  at  Alexandria, 
where  they  are  said  to  have  been  almost  half  the 
population,  and  in  the  time  of  our  Lord  numbered 
one  million.  As  we  might  naturally  suppose,  they 
soon  came  under  the  influence  of  Greek  thought 
and  culture,  although  they  gave  as  much  as  they 
received.  They  preserved  their  strict  separation 
from  the  heathen  in  the  forms  of  their  worship. 
They  had  in  Egypt  their  prayer-houses  or  syna- 
gogues, and  they  diligently  studied  their  law, 
maintaining  their  contribution  to  the  support  of 
the  central  seat  of  their  religion  in  the  Temple 
at  Jerusalem.  "  The  close  connection  established 
between  the  Hagiocracy  and  a  school  of  trained 
interpretation  of  the  Bible  and  teaching  of  the  law, 
which  from  the  time  of  Ezra  had  its  principal  seat 
in  Jerusalem,  rendered  this  the  sacred  centre  from 
which  all  the  minuter  ordinances  and  decisions 
of  rehgious  duty  were  constantly  issued  into  all 
heathen  countries ;  and  this  bond  of  union  was 
necessarily  tightened,  and  a  stricter  watch  kept 
over  the  remotest  Jews,  to  counteract  the  danger 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  63 

to  which  every  Jewish  element  was  exposed,  of 
evaporating  when  it  was  so  widely  dispersed. 
Thus,  in  a  certain  sense,  there  now  arrived  an  age 
when,  as  one  of  the  most  ancient  prophets  had  fore- 
told, the  'law  and  justice'  of  the  true  God  went 
forth  from  the  hill  of  Zion  into  all  the  world,  and 
the  pilgrimages  of  foreign  Jews  to  the  feasts  at 
Jerusalem,  which  were  evidently  regarded  with 
great  favour  and  promoted  by  the  priests,  afforded 
on  a  small  scale  a  prelude  to  the  universal  dominion 
of  this  religion  over  the  whole  world  "  (Ewald,  v. 
244). 

But  there  very  soon  arose  among  the  prosper- 
ous Jews  of  Alexandria  a  school  of  cultured  and 
thoughtful  men,  whose  minds  had  been  brought 
into  contact  with  the  best  results  of  heathen  philo- 
sophy ;  and  the  translation  of  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures into  Greek  was  in  some  measure,  no  doubt, 
the  w^ork  of  this  school,  or  at  least  went  on  side 
by  side  with  its  growth.  We  must  now  relate 
the  circumstances  which  led  to  the  formation  of  a 
Greek  Bible,  the  fruit  of  centuries  and  the  joint 
product  of  many  hands,  but  the  initiation  of  which 
can  certainly  be  dated  in  the  earliest  years  of  the 
Ptolemaic  period. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  the  fourth 
century  b.c.    w^as   the   Athenian  Demetrius  Pha- 


64  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

lereus.  He  liad  governed  the  city  of  Athens  for 
ten  years  under  Cassander  of  Macedonia  with  so 
much  moderation,  wisdom,  and  humanity,  that  he 
was  worshipped  by  the  people.  In  Athens,  it  is 
said,  there  were  as  many  statues  erected  to  Deme- 
trius as  there  were  days  iu  the  year.  It  was  the 
policy,  however,  of.  Cassander's  great  rival  and 
enemy,  Antigonus,  to  give  autonomy  to  the  cities 
of  Greece  in  order  to  detach  them  from  the  oppo- 
site cause.  Demetrius  Poliorcetes  was  sent  to 
Athens  in  307  b.c.  to  proclaim  this  new  liberty  to 
Athens.  Finding  Demetrius  Phalereus  there  he 
immediately  banished  him.  His  statues  were  de- 
molished, and  the  materials  of  which  they  were 
made  were  used  to  form  various  vessels  of  a  meaner 
sort.  Demetrius  fled  to  Cassander,  but  his  pro- 
tector soon  died,  and  he  then  betook  himself  to 
Egypt,  and  placed  himself  at  the  disposal  of 
Ptolemy  L,  who  had  a  quick  eye  for  merit,  and 
knew  how  to  gather  round  him  those  who  would 
be  his  efficient  helpers  in  the  raising  of  a  new  and 
powerful  state.  Demetrius  was  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  antiquity,  and  the  influence  of  his 
Alexandrian  activity  may  be  said  to  have  extended 
itself  over  the  whole  world.  It  was  he  who  sug- 
gested to  Ptolemy  the  founding  of  the  museum  and 
the  great  library  connected  with  it,  and  he   be- 


'     THE  SEPTUAGINT.  65 

came  the  president  of  the  new  school  which  may  be 
dated  from  that  time,  in  which  many  of  the  most 
eminent  men  of  the  world  were  gathered  together. 
It  seems  not  unlikely  that  Demetrius  suggested  to 
Ptolemy  Lagi  that  a  Greek  translation  of  the  law 
of  Moses  should  be  placed  in  the  Library.  But 
this  cannot  be  ascertained.  There  is  no  improba- 
bility, however,  in  what  is  stated  by  Aristeas,  that 
Ptolemy  II.,  Philadelphus,  who  certainly  com- 
menced the  work  of  the  Septuagint,  was  led  to  do 
so  by  the  persuasion  and  under  the  direction  of 
Demetrius.  In  285  B.C.  Ptolemy  Lagi  abdicated 
in  favour  of  his  son.  Demetrius  did  not  approve 
of  this  step,  and  after  the  death  of  the  old  king 
in  284  B.C.,  Philadelphus  banished  the  man  who 
opposed  his  accession.  He  died  in  prison,  it  is 
said,  by  the  bite  of  an  asp.  Archbishop  Usher 
ascribes  the  work  of  translation  of  the  Pentateuch 
into  Greek  to  the  year  277,  the  eighth  year  of 
Philadelphus,  but  he  does  so  on  the  authority  of 
Aristeas,  whose  account  has  indeed  been  followed, 
until  comparatively  modern  times,  with  implicit 
reliance,  but  is  now  universally  discarded  as  a  mass 
of  fables.  The  chief  particulars,  however,  of  the 
story,  which  is  now  familiar  to  most,  must  be 
briefly  recounted  for  the  sake  of  the  better  dis- 
crimination of  the  true  from  the  false. 

E 


66  FOUH  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

Aristeas  was  one  of  the  officers  of  the  guards  in 
the  army  of  King  Ptolemy  11.  He  and  Sosibius  of 
Tarentum,  and  Andreas,  one  of  the  nobles  of  the 
court,  beiug  much  interested  in  the  Jews,  when 
they  heard  of  the  project  of  Demetrius,  and  the 
commission  given  him  by  the  king  to  procure  a 
Greek  version  of  the  Hebrew  law,  took  occasion 
to  plead  for  the  liberty  of  the  Jewish  slaves,  who 
were  at  that  time  very  numerous  in  Egypt.  Their 
motive,  they  explained,  was  that  the  people  of  tlie 
Jews  might  be  the  more  disposed  to  assist  the 
king.  It  is  said  that  Ptolemy  was  persuaded,  and 
not  only  ordered  the  slaves  to  be  manumitted,  but 
paid  for  them  and  for  their  wives  and  children  at 
an  immense  price.  Demetrius  then  laid  before  the 
king  the  outlines  of  his  method.  A  copy  of  the 
original  Law  of  Moses  was  to  be  obtained  from 
Eleazar,  the  high  priest  at  Jerusalem.  Six  learned 
men  from  each  of  the  twelve  tribes,  competent  for 
the  work  of  translation,  were  to  be  sent  by  him. 
Aristeas  and  Andreas,  who  were  the  chosen  depu- 
ties, carried  with  them  gifts  and  sacrifices  of  great 
value,  were  received  with  great  respect,  and  re- 
turned with  all  that  was  desired.  The  Jewisli 
elders  were  first  tested  by  questions  by  Ptolemy 
himself,  and  then  shut  up  in  separate  cells  in  the 
Island   of  Pharos.      They   agreed   in  the  version 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  67 

which  each  made,  Demetrius  writing  it  down. 
The  work  occupied  seventy-two  days,  was  approved 
by  the  king,  and  handsomely  rewarded.  This  is 
the  story,  but  it  is  evidently  a  fabrication.  There 
were  not  seventy-two  learned  Greek  scholars  to  be 
found  in  Palestine  at  that  time,  and  certainly  not 
six  of  each  tribe.  The  numbers  themselves  betray 
the  hand  of  the  inventor.  Demetrius,  again,  would 
not  resort  to  such  a  method ;  and  he  was  not  alive 
at  the  time  referred  to.  Moreover,  the  miraculous 
features  of  the  narrative  show  that  it  was  the  pro- 
duct of  a  later  age,  and  of  the  Rabbinical  School. 
The  tradition,  however,  such  as  it  is,  was  handed 
down.  .  It  was  repeated  by  Aristobulus  in  125  B.C. 
It  was  added  to  by  Philo,  and  believed  by  all  the 
early  fathers  of  the  Christian  Church ;  appearing 
in  the  writings  of  Irenseus,  Clemens  Alexandrinus, 
Eusebius,  Athanasius,  Cyril,  Epiphanius,  Jerome, 
Augustine,  Chrysostom,  Hilary  of  Poitiers,  and 
Theodoret.  Jerome,  however,  threw  discredit  upon 
it,  and  after  his  time  it  was  received  with  consider- 
able reserve.  It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  there 
was  another  tradition,  which  came  from  the  Samari- 
tans. They  said  that  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  hear- 
injr  of  the  differences  between  the  Jews  and  the 
Samaritans  in  respect  to  the  Jewish  law,  called 
together  a  small  body  of  translators,  three  of  whom 


68  rCUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

were  Samaritans,  one  was  a  Jew,  and  one  assessor. 
The  Samaritans  undertook  to  translate  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  the  Jews  the  rest  of  the  Scriptures.  The 
king  approved  of  the  version  made  by  the  Samari- 
tans. This  is  no  doubt  a  mere  invention  arising 
out  of  the  jealous  feeling  of  the  Samaritans,  and 
possibly  from  the  fact  that  there  were  Samaritans 
at  Alexandria  at  that  time.  On  the  whole,  the 
probability  is  that  the  version  originated  quite 
naturally  from  the  requirements  of  the  Jews  in 
Alexandria,  as  they  adopted  the  Greek  language, 
and  became  less  familiar  with  Hebrew  and  Chal- 
dee.  The  Palestinian  Jews  were  never  favourable 
to  the  Greek  version.  Hence  it  is  likely  that,  in 
process  of  time,  an  attempt  would  be  made  by 
Hellenistic  Jews  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere  to  give 
authority  to  their  Bible,  and  the  fictitious  letter  of 
Aristeas  was  written  for  that  purpose.  That  the 
letter  is  a  fiction  is  evident  from  many  internal 
marks.  It  is  written  in  the  name  of  a  Greek,  but 
is  manifestly  the  composition  of  a  Jew;  and  it 
appeared  at  a  time  when  such  spurious  productions 
were  common. 

It  is  an  interesting  question  how  far  the  Septua- 
gint  has  been  founded  on  earlier  Greek  versions. 
There  is  no  impossibility  in  the  case.  Portions  of 
the  Pentateuch  may  have  been  translated  for  the 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  69 

use  of  Greek-speaking  Jews  before  285  B.c.  That 
the  earlier  boots  were  rendered  by  a  different 
haud  from  the  later  is  manifest  iu  the  Greek 
itself.  Traces  of  Egyptian  influence,  it  is  said, 
can  be  discovered  in  the  Pentateuch.  There  are 
also  forms  and  phrases  of  the  Greek  of  Macedonia, 
which,  of  course,  would  be  used  in  Alexandria  at 
that  time.  The  practice  of  reading  and  explaining 
the  Law  in  the  Synagogues  would  very  early  lead 
to  the  rendering  of  the  Hebrew  into  Greek.  And 
when  the  books  of  the  prophets  were  read,  as  they 
were  subsequently,  the  same  necessity  would  lead 
to  their  being  translated.  There  were,  we  know, 
other  Greek  versions,  made  at  a  much  later  date, 
which  the  great  Greek  father,  Origen,  compared 
with  the  Septuagint  in  his  celebrated  Hexapla. 
But  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  however  early  the 
Old  Testament  was  translated  into  Greek,  and 
though  the  evidence  is  satisfactory  that  a  portion 
at  least,  probably  the  first  six  books,  were  placed 
in  the  Alexandrian  Library  in  the  time  of  Ptolemy 
Phjladelphus,  still  it  was  read  almost  exclusively 
hy  the  Jews.  "  None  of  the  Greek  authors,"  says 
Prideaux,  "now  extant,  nor  any  of  the  ancient 
Latins,  have  ever  taken  the  least  notice  of  it.  For 
all  of  them,  in  what  they  write  of  the  Jews,  give 
accounts  of  them  so  vastly  wide  of  what  is  con- 


70  FOUE  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

tained  in  tbe  Holy  Scriptures,  as  sufficiently  show- 
that  they  never  perused  them,  or  knew  anything 
of  them.  There  are,  indeed,  out  of  Eupolemus, 
Abydenus,  and  other  ancient  writers  now  lost, 
some  fragments  still  preserved  in  Josephus,  Euse- 
bius,  and  other  authors,  which  speak  of  the  Jews 
more  agreeably  to  the  Scripture  history,  but  still 
with  such  variations  and  such  mixtures  of  falsity 
that  none  of  them  remain,  excepting  only  what  we 
find  taken  out  of  Demetrius,  in  the  ninth  book  of 
Eusebius,  De  Preparatione  Evangelica,  to  give  us 
any  ground  to  believe  that  the  writers  of  these 
ever  consulted  those  books,  or  knew  anything  of 
them.  This  Demetrius  was  a  historian  that  wrote 
in  Greek,  and  an  inhabitant  of  Alexandria,  when 
he  compiled  a  history  of  the  Jews,  and  continued 
it  down  to  the  reign  of  the  fourth  Ptolemy,  who 
was  Ptolemy  Philopator,  the  grandson  of  Phila- 
delphus.  How  much  longer  after  this  it  was  that 
he  lived  is  not  anywhere  said.  He  having  written 
so  agreeably  to  tlie  Scripture,  this  seems  to  prove 
him  <  to  have  been  a  Jew.  However,  if  he  were 
otherwise,  that  is,  not  a  Jew  but  a  heathen  Greek, 
that  no  heathen  writer  but  he  only  should  make 
use  of  those  Scriptures,  after  they  had  been  trans- 
lated into  Greek,  sufficiently  shows  how  much  that 
copy  of  them  which  was  laid  up  in  the  King's 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  71 

Library  at  Alexandria  was  then  neglected,  and 
also  how  carefully  the  Jews,  who  were  the  first 
composers  of  this  version,  kept  and  confined  all 
other  copies  of  it  to  their  own  use.  "  They  had  the 
stated  lessons  read  out  of  it  in  their  synagogues, 
and  they  had  copies  of  it  at  home  for  their  private 
use,  and  thus  they  seem  to  have  reserved  it  wholly 
to  themselves  till  our  Saviour's  time"  (vol.  ii.  pp. 
46,  47).  Dr.  Prideaux  states  the  case  perhaps  too 
strongly.  The  fact  that  we  have  no  traces  of  the 
use  of  the  Septuagint  among  Greek  writers  is 
scircely  sufficient  proof  that  the  contents  of  the 
Mosaic  law  were  unknown.  Ewald  makes  a  very 
dfferent  remark.  "As  soon,"  he  says,  "as  these 
Greek  versions  began  to  circulate,  they  naturally 
lecame  known  hy  degrees,  even  without  special 
iffort,  to  the  heathen  philosophers,  poets,  and 
scholars  of  the  day.  In  this  way  the  first  tolerably 
trustworthy  medium  ivas  supplied  them  for  making 
a  closer  acquaintance  ivith  Israel,  and  it  could  not 
fail  to  be  instj'uctive  if  we  coidd  trace  in  detail 
the  impression  produced  on  the  heathen  by  those 
strange  books,  especially  in  the  period  when  they 
first  appeared"  (vol.  v.  p.  255).  But  although 
there  may  be  difi"erences  of  opinion  as  to  the 
amount  of  influence  which  the  Jewish  Scriptures 
exercised  over  the  minds  of  heathen  writers,  there 


72  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

can  be  none  at  all  as  to  the  very  rapid  change 
which  took  place  in  the  Jewish  mind,  and  which 
continued  for  more  than  a  century,  by  the  close 
connection  of  the  Jews  and  Samaritans  with  t/lie 
heathen  world.  It  was  alDout  the  time  of  the  pro- 
mulgation of  the  Greek  version  of  the  Scriptm-es 
that  the  Hellenistic  School  of  Jews  arose,  and  it 
will  be  necessary  to  give  some  account  of  its 
characteristics  and  influence. 

For  a  considerable  period  after  the  return  of  the 
Jews  from  Babylon  there  still  remained  amoig 
them  a  reluctance  to  draw  closer  the  bonds  of 
fellowship  with  Gentile  nations.  The  Bahylonicn 
School  of  Jews  was  quite  as  strict  in  all  Jewish 
doctrine  and  rites  as  that  of  Jerusalem.  But 
events  did  much  to  break  down  that  severity.  The 
Persian  wars,  followed  by  those  of  Alexander,  not 
only  scattered  the  people  in  various  directions,  but 
led  to  many  occasions  of  profitable  intercourse  with 
the  wealthy  conquerors.  The  Jews  were  oppressed 
still,  and  multitudes  of  them  were  carried  away 
into  slavery.  As  they  gradually  obtained  their 
liberty  it  became  necessary  for  them  to  seek  out 
means  of  livelihood,  and  they  were  thus  brought 
into  closer  contact  with  alien  races.  This  was 
especially  the  case  with  those  Jews  who  were  either 
transported  by  violence  to  Egypt  or  settled  there 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  73 

as  emigrants.  Tliey  very  soon  found  opportunities 
of  amassing  wealth,  and  were  tempted  to  lay  aside 
the  prejudices  of  their  nation  for  the  sake  of 
pleasant  and  profitable  friendship  with  their 
heathen  neighbours.  The  children  of  the  first 
generation  of  emigrants  and  emancipated  slaves 
were  in  a  very  different  position  from  their  fathers. 
They  were  taught  Greek  as  their  native  language, 
and  were  soon  versed  in  the  scholarship  of  Egypt. 
We  cannot,  therefore,  be  surprised  that  Greek 
philosophy  and  culture  opened  their  stores  freely 
to  the  more  learned  and  intellectual  Jews,  and  that 
they  became  cosmopolitan  in  their  spirit.  It  was 
not  a  philosophy  of  antiquity  which  they  were 
invited  to  study,  but  the  systems  which  were  in 
vogue  in  their  own  time,  the  representatives  of 
which  were  in  Alexandria  exercising  a  powerful 
fascination  over  their  contemporaries.  It  is  true 
that  there  were  different  schools,  which  in  some 
sense  opposed  one  another.  But  they  were  all 
comparatively  new  to  the  Jewish  mind,  and  per- 
haps as  the  Jews  came  from  a  system  where  variety 
of  individual  opinion  was  forbidden,  and  almost 
impossible,  they  would  yield  themselves  all  the 
more  readily  to  the  spell  of  Greek  speculation. 

The  three  great  systems  which  had  most  attrac- 
tion for  the  Jews  were   the   Platonic,  the   Peri- 


74  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

patetic,  and  the  Stoic.  All  liad  points  of  congruity 
with  the  Old  Testament.  The  depth  and  idealism 
of  the  old  Platonic  philosophy  must  have  laid  hold 
with  great  force  of  the  more  profound  spirits 
among  them  ;  and  the  Stoic  severity  and  purity  of 
life  matched  well  with  the  Jewish  ritual.  There 
were  very  few  Jews  who  openly  adhered  to  the 
Epicurean  system.  But  it  is  well  to  remember 
that  while  the  learned  Jews  would  study  these 
Greek  philosophies,  there  was  no  occasion  for  them 
to  renounce  Judaism  in  order  to  utilise  their 
newly-acquired  wisdom.  They  would  naturally 
turn  to  their  own  Scriptures,  and  try  to  find  in 
them  all  that  the  new  teachers  revealed  to  them. 
This  some  of  them  did,  to  their  own  entire  satis- 
faction, proving,  as  they  thought,  that  Pythagoras 
and  Plato  and  Aristotle  and  Zeno  had  borrowed  all 
that  was  distinctive  in  their  systems  from  the 
Books  of  Moses. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  at  the  very  time 
when  the  Jews  were  drinking  deep  at  the  fountains 
of  heathen  thought  and  wisdom,  they  were  de- 
nouncing heathenism  itself  as  a  fanatical  system,  as 
loudly  as  ever.  We  can  see  this  exemplified  in  the 
later  Books  which  were  included  in  the  Apocrypha, 
in  some  of  the  strange  fictions  by  which  heathenish 
practices  were  ridiculed,  and  in  the  Books,  such  as 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  75 

Ecclesiasticus  (written  not  very  long  after  the 
Alexandrian  connection  began),  tlie  intention  of 
which  was  to  exalt  the  God  of  Israel  and  His 
people  as  against  the  ungodly  of  the  Gentile  world. 
"  Like  our  scattered  colonists  in  distant  lands,  the 
Grecian  Jews  would  cling  with  double  affection  tc 
the  customs  of  their  home,  and  invest  with  the  halo 
of  tender  memories  the  sacred  traditions  of  their 
faith.  The  Grecian  Jew  migjht  "well  look  with  con- 
tempt,  not  unmingled  with  pity,  on  the  idolatrous 
rites  practised  around,  from  which  long  ago  the 
pitiless  irony  of  Isaiah  had  torn  the  veil  of  beauty, 
to  show  the  hideousness  and  unreality  beneath. 
The  dissoluteness  of  public  and  private  life, 
the  frivolity  and  aimlessness  of  their  pursuits, 
political  aspirations,  popular  assemblies,  amuse- 
ments— in  short,  the  utter  decay  of  society  in  all 
its  phases  would  lie  open  to  his  gaze  "  (Edersheim). 
But  notwithstanding  this  separation  from  heathen- 
ism, there  was  a  recognition  of  a  revelation  of 
Divine  truth  in  the  midst  of  the  darkness  whicli 
led  the  better  raiuds  to  make  advances  towards 
Greek  philosophy.  Some  of  the  Kabbis  denounced 
it,  but  it  was  studied  notwithstanding.  And  the 
result  was  a  new  school  among  the  Jews,  a  school 
of  Hellenising  Jews,  who  remained  for  centuries 
separate  from  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  and  who  in- 


76  FOUR  CENTUiUES  OF  SILENCE. 

troduced  into  wliat  was  subsequently  tlieir  Bible 
the  broader  views  of  tlieir  Hellenistic  Judaism. 
The  Books  which  supported  such  views,  and  were 
included  in  the  Septuagint,.were  at  first  somewhat 
countenanced  by  the  Rabbinical  party,  but  in  the 
end  they  were  denounced  and  forbidden,  because 
they  were  supposed  to  exercise  a  kind  of  rational- 
istic influence  over  their  readers,  an  influence 
which  undermined  the  authority  of  the  stricter 
Judaism.  The  contact  between  the  Jewish  and 
Greek  minds,  however,  having  been  once  brought 
about,  could  not  be  again  resolved.  The  fact  re- 
mained, that  Jews  read  Greek  literature,  and  were 
largely  influenced  by  it.  The  school  of  Alexandiia 
was  too  powerful  to  be  ignored.  The  result  was 
a  compromise,  as  generally  is  the  case,  between  the 
written  Word  and  tlje  new  tendency.  This  com- 
promise betrayed  itself  in  some  striking  features 
of  method,  which  we  must  briefly  describe. 

It  has  already  been  observed  that  the  Jews  of 
Alexandria  preserved  their  traditional  respect  for 
the  sanctity  of  the  Jewish  Temple  at  Jerusalem. 
The  high  priest  of  the  nation  was  still  regarded 
as  a  kind  of  ecclesiastical  chief  of  the  whole 
scattered  Israel.  The  Old  Testament  was  still  the 
Authorised  Scripture,  which  was  not  to  be  tam- 
pered with.     But  the  study  of  Greek  philosophy 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  11 

introduced  into  the  minds  of  learned  men  in  Egypt 
new  thoughts,  which  they  found  it  difficult  to 
harmonise  with  the  language  of  the  Jewish  Scrip- 
tures. This  was  especially  the  case  in  the  specula- 
tions which  the  Platonists  encouraged  on  the 
Divine  essence.  The  Books  of  the  Old  Testament 
were  written  by  men  who  believed  in  the  person- 
ality of  God,  and  who  freely  employed  anthro- 
pomorphic representations  in  speaking  of  Divine 
intercourse  with  the  patriarchs  and  prophets.  In 
like  manner  had  the  Greek  poets  filled  their  writ- 
ings with  mythical  and  humanistic  language,  and 
creations  of  the  imaginative  genius  which  the 
pliilosophical  minds  of  Greece  had  turned  into 
mysteries  and  dim  shadows  of  higher  truths, 
discovering  in  them,  or  professing  to  discover  in 
them,  allegories  which  were  full  of  the  precious 
truth  of  a  higher  wisdom.  Why  might  not  the 
Books  of  the  Old  Testament,  while  still  accepted 
as  of  Divine  authority,  be  utilised,  in  a  similar 
manner,  by  the  new  school  of  philosophical  Jews  ? 
This,  as  we  shall  see,  became  a  fixed  principle  of 
interpretation  among  those  who  remained  faithful 
to  the  authority  of  Scripture,  while  surrendering 
themselves  to  Greek  speculation.  From  the 
middle  of  the  second  century  B.C.  to  the  time  of 
the  Alexandrian  School  of   the  Christian  Church, 


7S  FOUR  CExNTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

represented  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus  and  Origen, 
the  allegorical  method  prevailed.  It  was  the 
source  of  great  defection  from  the  simplicity  of 
faith,  though  at  the  same  time  it  rendered  some 
service  to  the  cause  of  the  true  Church  in  attach- 
ing to  it  the  more  speculative  minds,  which  would 
probably  have  held  aloof  otherwise  from  what 
could  not  be  brought  into  any  intelligible  relation 
to  their  cherished  philosophies.  Ewald  has  re- 
marked that  there  were  prescriptions  in  the  Book 
of  the  Law  no  longer  applicable  in  their  literal 
meaning,  or  of  which  the  grounds  were  obscure, 
which  by  means  of  this  allegorical  method  of  in- 
terpretation still  retained  their  sanctity,  such  as 
the  regulations  as  to  food  and  sacrifice.  The  his- 
tory of  the  people,  too,  became  a  fruitful  source 
of  suggestion  to  such  minds,  from  the  account  of 
creation  downwards.  There  is  scarcely  any  part;  of 
the  Pentateuch  which  is  not  treated  in  this  specula- 
tive manner  by  Philo,  and  he  is  said  to  have 
borrowed  his  ideas  from  previous  writers ;  indeed, 
there  are  some  traces  of  the  same  spirit  in  the  Sei)- 
tuagint  version  itself. 

But  apart  altogether  from  the  connection  which 
we  have  thus  indicated  between  the  Greek  version 
and  the  Alexandrian  School,  there  is  a  special  in- 
terest to  the  Christian  mind  in  the  fact  that  the 


THE  SEPTUAGINT.  79 

writings  of  the  Old  Testament  were  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  Gentiles,  and  spread  through  a  large 
extent  of  the  world  before  the  time  of  our  Saviour. 
Although  it  was  only  a  small  portion  of  the 
Hebrew  Bible  which  was  placed  at  first  in  the 
Library  of  Alexandria,  still  it  was  the  foundation  on 
which  the  whole  edifice  of  Greek  Scriptures  was 
subsequently  reared.  The  remarks  of  Dr.  Stanley, 
while  somewhat  too  free,  will  be  read  with  interest 
in  connection  with  the  facts  which  we  have  de- 
scribed :  "  If  ever  there  was  a  translation  which, 
by  its  importance,  rose  to  a  level  with  the  original, 
it  was  this.  It  was  not  the  original  Hebrew,  but 
the  Septuagint  translation  through  which  the 
religious  truths  of  Judaism  became  known  to  the 
Greek  and  the  Eoman.  It  was  the  Septuagint 
which  was  the  Bible  of  the  Evangelists  and 
Apostles  in  the  first  century,  and  of  the  Christian 
Church  for  the  first  age  of  its  existence,  which  is 
stiU  the  only  recognised  authorised  text  of  the 
Eastern  Church,  and  the.  basis  of  the  only  author- 
ised text  of  the  Latin  Church.  Widely  as  it  differs 
from  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  in  form,  in  substance, 
in  chronology,  in  language ;  unequal,  imperfect, 
grotesque  as  are  its  renderings,  it  has,  nevertheless, 
through  large  periods  of  ecclesiastical  history, 
rivalled,  if  not  superseded,  those  Scriptures  them- 


80  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCK. 

selves"  ("  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,"  v.  258- 
9).  To  the  critic  the  Greek  version  is  of  incalcul- 
able value  in  preserving  the  traditional  remem- 
brance of  the  Hebrew  where  we  have  reason  to 
doubt  the  accuracy  of  our  present  Masoretic  text. 
And  we  may  add  that  the  additional  Books  which 
were  included  in  the  Septuagint,  and  which  we  now 
separate  from  the  Old  Testament,  as  the  Jews  of 
Palestine  did  always,  assist  us  to  discriminate  what 
was  given  under  inspiration  of  God  from  those 
later  writings,  which,  while  they  were  read  and 
revered  by  the  Alexandrian  Jews,  betrayed  the 
spiritual  degeneracy  of  the  nation,  and  the  influence 
both  of  heathen  speculation  and  of  Gentile  manners. 
The  Apocrypha,  as  we  shall  be  able  to  show  here- 
after, bears  witness  for  God.  It  stands  side  by 
side  with  the  true  Bible,  but  it  seems  to  say  to  all 
who  read  it,  the  holy  men  of  God  who  wrote  the 
Books  of  the  Old  Testament  spake  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  A  corrupt  Bible  is  the 
index  as  well  as  the  fruit  of  a  corrupt  Church. 


THE  APOCRYPHA.  81 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   APOCEYPHA. 

rpHERE  are  many  reasons  wliy  a  close  and  ac- 
curate study  of  the  collection  of  writings 
usually  called  the  Apocrypha,  is  of  special  impor- 
tance at  the  present  time.  We  are  in  the  midst  of 
a  controversy  on  the  subject  of  Scripture  autho- 
rity. It  is  well  that  we  should  become  familiar- 
ised with  the  grounds  upon  which  the  canonical 
books  were  separated  from  others,  and  it  is,  above 
all,  necessary  that  we  should  estimate,  more  clearly 
and  decisively  than  many  do,  the  position  of  the 
Jews  in  Palestine,  as  distinguished  from  those  in 
Alexandria.  Some,  who  have  given  too  little 
attention  to  the  facts,  are  contented  to  admire 
passages  here  and  there  which  they  find  in  the 
Apocrypha,  without  regarding  the  sources  from 
which  such  passages  have  come.  They  are  apt  to 
forget  that  the  best  words  which  are  to  be  found 
in  these  later  writings  of  the  Jews  were  only 
echoes  from  the  Old  Testament.     The  light  which 


82  FOUR  CENTURIES  OP  SILENCE. 

in  some  books  shines  upon  the  pages  of  the  Apoc- 
rypha, and  glows  with  Biblical,  almost  Christian, 
splendour,  is  the  lingering  light  of  the  western  shy. 
The  contact  of  the  Jewish  mind  with  the  Gentile 
world  produced,  especially  in  the  Alexandrian 
writers,  a  considerable  change  in  the  style  of 
thought  and  language  ;  in  some  cases,  no  doubt,  a 
broader  tone  and  more  philosophical  spirit ;  but  it 
is  certain  that  the  Jews  of  the  Hellernstic  School, 
from  whom  almost  all  the  later  didactic  books 
came,  had  no  deep  spiritual  insight  of  their  own, 
and  added  nothing  of  permanent  value  to  the  body 
of  Divine  truth  already  given  to  the  world  in  the 
canonical  Scriptures. 

Another  reason  why  these  books  should  be  more 
carefully  studied  is,  that  the  fact  may  come  more 
prominently  before  us  that  there  was  a  long  in- 
terval of  time  between  the  closing  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  production  of  these  later  books. 
When  we  remember  that  there  is  nothing  to  be 
ascribed  to  the  period  between  Malachi  and  the 
beginning  of  the  second  century  B.C.,  at  least  with 
any  degree  of  certainty  ;  that  an  interval  must  be 
supposed  of  at  least  a  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
during  which  the  voice  of  the  Jewish  nation  was 
silent ;  and  that  such  books  as  Tohit,  Baruch,  and 
Ecclesiasticus,  even  if  they  should  be  dated  at  the 


THE  APOCRYPHA.  83 

* 

earliest  period  possible,  still  leave  a  broad  space  of 
time,  marking  off  the  canonical  books  from  all 
others, — we  must  surely  feel  the  force  of  the  argu- 
ment for  the  authority  of  the  Old  Testament. 

And  then  we  must  add  to  these  reasons  another, 
wbich  is  perhaps  still  more  striking ;  these  Apoc- 
ryphal books  come  to  us  from  the  Alexandrian 
School,  not  from  the  Jews  of  Palestine.  It  is  true 
that  there  is  in  them  a  great  deal  of  strong  Jewish, 
feeling;  they  are  defensive  of  Judaism;  and  in  such 
books  as  Bel  and  the  Dragon  the  writer  plainly 
has  the  deliberate  intention  to  exalt  the  religion  of 
the  Jews  by  sarcasm  and  ridicule  against  the 
heathen  idolatry.  Moreover,  such  writings  as  The 
Wisdom  of  the  Son  of  Sirach,  and  The  Maccabees, 
prove  that  there  was  no  intentional  departure  from 
the  old  standpoint ;  no  relaxing  of  Jewish  nation- 
ality ;  no  desire  to  be  absorbed  in  the  Gentile 
world.  The  spirit  of  the  Apocrypha,  as  a  whole, 
is  not  really  cosmopolitan,  although  it  is  here  and 
there  apologetic  and  conciliatory  towards  the  best 
side  of  heathenism,  especially  in  Ecclesiasticus  and 
The  Wisdom  of  Solomon.  But  the  preservation  of 
this  lower  class  of  Jewish  literature  did  not,  in  the 
least  degree,  obscure  the  distinction,  which  re- 
mained clear  and  decided  in  the  minds  of  the 
leading  religious  men  of  Palestine,  however  it  was 


84  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

at  Alexandria,  between  what  was  called  the  first 
canon  and  the  second  canon.  The  "  Deutero-can- 
onical"  books  were  read,  especially  by  the  Hel- 
lenists and  by  the  Jews  who  were  of  the  Dispersion, 
but  it  is  doubtful  whether  even  the  most  advanced 
school  of  the  philosophical  Jews  of  Alexandria  ever 
regarded  the  second  canon,  containing  the  Apoc- 
rypha, as  possessing  Divine  authority.  By  the 
Jews  of  the  Eastern  schools  they  were  quoted,  and 
at  first  treated  with  respect ;  but  at  last  they  were 
condemned  by  the  Kabbis,  because  their  influence 
was  thought  to  be  unfavourable  to  the  strict  Juda- 
ism which  resented  the  growth  of  Gentile  influence; 
So  that  the  result  of  this  rise  of  a  second  canon  w^as 
to  confirm  the  authority  of  the  first.  It  is  true 
that  in  the  early  Christian  Church  the  familiar  use 
of  the  Septuagint,  into  which,  by  degrees,  the 
Apocrypha  had  been  incorporated,  led  to  the  read- 
ing of  the  non-Scriptural  books  in  the  churches. 
But  that  may  be  accounted  for  from  the  fact  that 
there  was  no  disposition  at  that  time  to  examine 
closely  the  authority  of  the  books,  and  as  they 
were  included  in  the  Greek  Bible  they  would  be 
often  read  as  though  they  were  inspired.  And 
their  general  agreement  with  the  Old  Testament 
would  be  more  thought  of  than  their  legendary 
and   superstitious   features,    which  would  be   less 


THE  APOCRYPHA.  85 

offensive  in  those  early  times  than  they  are  now. 
But  there  never  wets  a  time  when  the  hooJcs  of  the 
Apocrypha  were  not  recognised  as  outside  the  line 
of  canonical  authority.  Tiiey  were  never  quoted 
by  any  Apostolic  writer.  They  never  received  the 
sanction  of  our  Lord.  As  soon  as  the  early  Church 
entered  upon  the  question  of  distinguishing  Scrip- 
ture from  other  books  they  were  decisively  relegated 
to  a  lower  place* 

There  are  many  Jewish  writings  besides  those 
which  were  included  in  the  Septuagint.  Without 
assuming  to  be  able  to  give  a  perfectly  exhaustive 
catalogue,  we  may  mention  the  following  as  a 
tolerably  complete  enumeration  of  the  works  which 
were  produced  after  the  time  of  Malachi :  Ecclesi- 
asticus,  Baruch,  The  Epistle  of  Jeremy,  Tobit,  The 
Wisdom  of  Solomon,  Judith,  I.  Esdras,  11.  Esdras, 
Esther  x.-xvi.,  the  Song  of  the  Three  Holy  Children, 
the  History  of  Susannah,  Bel  and  the  Dragon,  the 
Prayer  of  Manasses,  I.  Book  of  Maccabees,  H.  Book 
of  Maccabees.  All  these  are  included  in  the  Apoc- 
rypha. Then  we  are  informed  in  the  Talmud  of 
other  books  which  are  not  now  extant,  such  as  "The 
Roll  of  the  Building  of  the  Temple"  and  ''The  Out- 
side Books,"  which  are  thought  to  have  represented 
the  works  of  heretics,  as  well  as  those  of  Helle- 
nistic Jews,  not  recognised  by  the  Rabbis.     "  In 


86  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

the  second,  and  even  in  the  third  century  b.c., 
there  were  Hellenist  historians,  such  as  Eupolemus, 
Artapanus,  Demetrius,  and  Aristeas;  tragic  and 
epic  poets,  such  as  Ezekiel,  Pseudo-Phiio,  and 
Theodotus,  who,  after  the  manner  of  the  ancient 
classical  writers,  but  for  their  own  purposes,  de- 
scribed certain  periods  of  Jewish  history,  or  sang 
of  such  themes  as  the  Exodus,  Jerusalem,  or  the 
rape  of  Dinah"  (Edersheim).  These  writers  are 
referred  to  by  Eusebius,  and  extracts  from  them 
are  found  in  his  Preparatio  Evangelica  (ix.  20,  &c.). 
But  there  are  other  works  which  have  come  down 
to  us  which  represent  a  distinct  class  of  writings, 
generally  named  the  Pseudepigraphic  or  Pseudo- 
nymic,  because  they  were  written  with  false  names 
of  authors  attached  to  them.  Dr.  Edersheim,  who 
gives  a  very  interesting  account  of  these  writings, 
says :  "  It  is  difficult  to  arrange  them  otherwise 
than  chronologically,  and  even  here  the  greatest 
difference  of  opinion  prevails.  Their  general  cha- 
racter (with  one  exception)  may  be  described  as 
anti-heathen,  perhaps  missionary,  but  chiefly  as 
Apocalyptic.  They  were  attempts  at  taking  up 
the  keynote  struck  in  the  prophecies  of  Daniel; 
rather,  we  should  say,  to  lift  the  veil  only  partially 
raised  by  him,  and  to  point — alike  as  concerned 
Israel  and  the  kingdoms  of  the  world — to  the  past, 


THE  APOCRYPHA.  8  7 

the  present,  and  the  future,  in  the  light  of  the 
kingship  of  the  Messiah.  Many  of  these  works 
must  have  perished.  In  one  of  the  latest  of  them 
(4  Esdras  xiv.  44,  46)  they  are  put  down  at 
seventy,  probably  a  round  number,  having  refer- 
ence to  the  supposed  number  of  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  or  to  every  possible  mode  of  interpreting 
Scripture.  They  are  described  as  intended  for  the 
"  wise  among  the  people,"  probably  those  whom  St. 
Paul,  in  the  Christian  sense,  designates  as  "  know- 
ing the  time "  of  the  Advent  of  the  Messiah. 
Viewed  in  this  light,  they  embody  the  ardent 
aspirations  and  the  inmost  hopes  of  those  who 
longed  for  the  "  consolation  of  Israel,"  as  they  un- 
derstood it.  The  most  interesting,  as  well  as  the 
oldest  of  these  books,  are  those  known  as  "  The 
Booh  of  Enoch,  The  Syhilline  Oracles,  The  Psalter 
of  Solomon,  and  The  Booh  of  Jubilees,  or  Little 
Genesis"  (Edersheim).  Then  we  have,  in  addi- 
tion. The  Fourth  Booh  of  Esdras  (included  in  2 
Esdras,  chapters  iii.-xiv.).  The  Ascension  and 
Vision  of  Isaiah,  The  Assumption  of  Moses,  The 
Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  The  Third  Booh  of  Mac- 
cabees, found  in  the  Greek  Bible,  probably  dating 
about  50  B.C.  ;  The  Fourth  Booh  of  Maccabees,  in- 
cluded in  the  works  of  Josephus,  but  wrongly 
ascribed  to  him,  probably  4  B.C. — an  amplification 


88  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

of  2  Mace.  vi.  i8;  vii.  42;  The  Fifth  Booh  of 
Maccabees,  written  perhaps  after  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  containing  tlie  history  of  the  Asmoneans 
and  of  Herod.  (See  Cotton's  Maccabees,  1832; 
Stanley's  Jewish  Church,  vol.  iii.) 

Now  with  regard  to  the  books  which  we  now 
call  The  Apocrypha,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
they  were  placed  side  by  side  with  the  books  of 
Scripture  in  the  Septuagint  by  men  who  had  fallen 
away  from  the  strict  notions  of  the  Jews  of  Pales- 
tine. "  Their  ecclesiastical  constitution  was  less 
definite,  and  the  same  influences  which  created 
among  them  an  independent  literature,  disinclined 
them  to  regard  with  marked  veneration  more  than 
the  Law  itself.  The  idea  of  a  canon  was  foreign 
to  their  habits ;  and  the  fact  that  they  possessed 
the  sacred  books,  not  merely  in  a  translation,  but 
in  a  translation  made  at  several  times,  without  any 
unity  of  plan  or  without  any  uniformity  of  execu- 
tion, necessarily  weakened  that  traditional  feeling 
of  their  real  connection  which  existed  in  Palestine" 
(Westcott,  in  Smith's  Diet.,  art.  Canon).  At  the 
same  time  it  is  evident  that  while  the  books  were 
regarded  as  almost  on  a  level  with  the  Hagiographa, 
there  was  a  distinction,  even  in  Alexandria,  between 
all  such  writings  and  those  which  preceded  the 
Persian  period.    It  does  not  follow  because  they 


THE  APOCRYPHA.  89 

were  collected  into  the  same  volume  witli  the  Scrip- 
tures tliat  they  were  esteemed  as  highly ;  for 
among  the  Alexandrians  all  literature  on  sacred 
subjects  would  be  regarded  with  reverence. 

There  is  very  great  variety  in  the  books  of  the 
Apocrypha,  and  they  cover  a  period  of  nearly  two 
hundred  years.  The  earliest  cannot  be  dated  be- 
fore the  third  century  B.C.,  and  the  latest  was 
probably  about  30  B.C.,  or  later.  Some  portions 
were  written  by  Christians  after  the  time  of  our 
Lord.  It  was  at  the  time  of  the  Jewish  revival 
under  the  Maccabees  that  the  best  of  the  extra 
Scriptural  writings  were  gathered  together,  and 
when  once  such  a  collection  was  made  it  would  be 
natural  to  add  one  and  another  until  the  political 
disturbances  of  Palestine  and  Egypt  under  the 
Koman  power  put  an  end  to  literary  pursuits  for  a 
time.  We  must  now  proceed  to  characterise  these 
Apocryphal  books,  —  regarding  them  in  their 
general  features,  and  giving  a  short  account  of 
some  which  are  the  most  valuable  as  revealing  the 
religious  state  of  the  Jews. 

I.  The  first  and  most  conspicuous  feature  of 
these  later  books  of  the  Jews  is  their  legendary  and 
superstitious  character.  This,  it  has  been  observed, 
may  have  arisen  as  a  natural  development  of  the 
national  genius  during  the  Captivity.     The  literary 


90  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE, 

and  poetical  gifts  of  the  people  would  be  called 
out  among  the  Babylonians  and  Persians.  In 
I  Esdras  iii.  4,  there  is  an  allusion  to  such  gifts 
and  to  the  honours  with  which  they  were  rewarded. 
"  The  transition  from  this  to  the  practice  of  story- 
telling was,  with  the  Jews,  as  afterwards  with  the 
Arabs,  easy  and  natural  enough.  The  period  of 
the  captivity,  with  its  strange  adventures,  and  the 
remoteness  of  the  scenes  connected  with  it,  offered 
a  wide  and  attractive  field  to  the  imagination  of 
such  narrators.  Sometimes,  as  in  Bel  and  the 
Dragon,  the  motive  of  such  stories  would  be  the 
love  of  the  marvellous  minorlinor  itself  with  the 
feeling  of  scorn  with  which  the  Jew  looked  on  the 
idolater.  In  other  cases,  as  in  Tobit,  and  Susannah 
and  the  Elders,  the  story  would  gain  popularity 
from  its  ethical  tendencies.  The  singular  varia- 
tions in  the  text  of  the  former  book,  indicate  at 
once  the  extent  of  its  circulation  and  the  liberties 
taken  by  successive  editors.  In  the  narrative  of 
Judith,  again,  there  is  probably  something  more 
than  the  interest  attaching  to  the  history  of  the 
past.  There  is,  indeed,  too  little  evidence  of  the 
truth  of  the  narrative  for  us  to  look  on  it  as  history 
at  all,  and  it  takes  its  place  in  the  region  of  his- 
torical romance,  written  with  a  political  motive. 
Under  the  guise  of  the  old  Assyrian  enemies  of 


THE  APOCRYPHA.  91 

Israel,  tlie  writer  is  covertly  attacking  tlie  Syrian 
invaders  against  whom  his  countrymen  were  con- 
tending, stirring  them  up  by  a  story  of  imagined 
or  traditional  heroism,  to  follow  the  example  of 
Judith,  as  she  had  followed  that  of  Jael.  The 
development  of  this  form  of  literature  is,  of  course, 
compatible  with  a  high  degree  of  excellence,  but  it 
is  true  of  it  at  all  times,  and  was  especially  true  of 
the  literature  of  the  ancient  world,  that  it  belongs 
rather  to  its  later  and  feebler  period.  It  is  a 
special  sign  of  decay  in  honesty  and  discernment 
when  such  writings  are  passed  off  and  accepted 
as  belonging  to  actual  history"  (Westcott  in 
Smith's  Diet.,  art.  Apocrypha).  At  the  same  time 
it  is  well  to  notice  that  the  legends  of  the  Apoc- 
rypha are  few  and  moderate  in  character  compared 
with  those  of  the  Talmudical  waitings.  In  them 
there  are  not  only  fabulous  stories  with  which  are 
connected  religious,  moral,  or  political  lessons  and 
aims,  but  there  are  also  legendary  incidents  intro- 
duced into  the  references  to  the  Old  Testament, 
especially  in  the  era  of  Moses,  whose  life  is  em- 
bellished with  wonders  in  the  later  times  of  the 
Jews,  as  we  see  in  Josephus  and  Philo,  and  in 
some  of  the  allusions  in  the  New  Testament.  We 
should  also  connect  with  this  fictitious  element  in 
the  Apocrypha  the  spurious  use  of  great  names. 


02  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

as  Ezra,  Daniel,  Esther,  Jeremiah,  Solomon.  This 
would  certainly  not  be  attempted  at  a  time  when 
the  greatest  men  were  living,  and  when  the  Jewish 
Church  was  pervaded  with  the  feeliog  of  rever- 
ence for  Scripture ;  it  was  the  sign  of  a  degene- 
rate Church  and  a  degenerate  people. 

2.  Another  characteristic  of  the  Apocryphal 
writings  is  the  lower  religious  tone^  which  expresses 
itself  in  ritualism,  the  advocacy  of  good  works  as 
the  ground  of  acceptance  before  God,  and  the 
bigotry  of  national  pride.  The  ritualistic  extrava- 
gance is  seen  in  such  an  instance  as  the  descrip- 
tion of  Simon  in  the  fiftieth  chapter  of  Ecclesias- 
ticus ;  but  it  may  be  observed  that  the  rhetorical 
splendour  of  the  words  is  perhaps  almost  more 
the  aim  of  the  writer  than  the  exaltation  of  ritual 
itself.  In  many  passages  which  it  is  unnecessary 
to  quote,  good  works  are  dwelt  upon  as  specially 
acceptable  to  God  (see  Tobit  iv.  7-11,  xii.  9); 
indeed  it  was  the  praise  of  almsgiving  and  the 
sanction  of  the  worship  of  saints  which  no  doubt 
led  the  Romish  Church  to  cling  to  the  Apocrypha, 
and  include  it  in  the  canon  by  the  decree  of  the 
Council  of  Trent..  National  pride  was  the  lead- 
ing element  in  the  historical  books,  and  in  the 
mockery  poured  upon  heathen  nations.  Even  the 
best  portions  of  such  works  as  Ecclesiasticus  and 


THE  APOCRYPHA.  93 

the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  are  tainted  witli  tliat  in- 
flated Judaism  which  was  the  sign  of  a  falling 
people.  The  mere  rhetorical  hero-worship  which 
we  find  in  the  Apocrypha  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  the  pious  celebration  of  Divine  goodness  to 
the  fathers,  which  mingles  with  humble  acknow- 
ledgment of  unworthiness  in  the  Psalms.  The 
record  of  great  bravery  and  patriotism  under  the 
Maccabees  is  rather  like  the  outburst  of  feeling  in 
a  people  remembering  a  great  past,  and  regretting 
it,  than  the  token  of  a  vigorous  spiritual  life.  It 
was  the  despairing  courage  of  a  small  band  of 
patriots  rousing  the  nation  for  a  while  to  great 
efforts,  rather  than  the  calm  strength  of  a  great 
people  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God.  There  is 
nothing  throughout  the  Apocrypha  which  bears 
witness  to  anything  like  a  diffused  and  sustained  re- 
ligious life.  The  prophets  were  long  gone,  and  the 
prophetic  spirit  had  not  returned.  The  sages  had 
taken  their  place,  and  instead  of  Divine  messages 
were  wise  sayings  and  lofty  flights  of  eloquence,  and 
attempts  to  clothe  the  predictions  of  the  ancient 
times  with  the  new  dress  of  sensational  realism. 
All  was  in  vain.  Eabbinism  with  its  traditionalism, 
Pharisaism  with  its  worship  of  the  letter  of  the  law, 
swallowed  up  every  other  form  of  religion  except 
in  a  few  chosen  spirits  in  the  nation.     The  stricter 


94  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

Jewish  life  became  narrowed  into  a  hateful  bigotry 
and  intolerance  and  exclusiveness.  The  broader 
Judaism  which  associated  itself  with  the  philosophy 
of  the  Gentile  world,  and  with  the  wider  thoughts  of 
those  who  were  seeking  after  God  amid  the  varied  life 
of  other  nations,  while  it  by  no  means  restored  the  lost 
tone  of  the  prophets,  certainly  prepared  the  way,  in 
some  degree,  for  a  new  revelation  of  Divine  truth. 

3.  Much  the  most  interesting  feature  in  the 
Apocrypha,  however,  is  the  presence  there  of  what 
may  be  called  a  new  religious  philosophy,  which  was 
due  to  the  influence  of  the  Alexandrian  school  of 
thought  on  the  Jewish  writers.  This  we  must 
briefly  illustrate  in  a  few  examples,  although  the 
fact  is  patent  on  the  very  surface  of  several  of  the 
books.  It  has  been  observed  by  Dean  Stanley  that 
the  two  writings  which  tower  above  all  the  rest, 
have  both  a  distinct  object  in  view,  and  that  con- 
nected with  "  wisdom,"  as  the  end  sought  after 
by  both  Jews  and  Gentiles.  The  "  Wisdom  of 
the  Son  of  Sirach"  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon,"  are 
manifestly  books  of  a  similar  character,  connecting 
links  between  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New. 
The  Son  of  Sirach  aims  to  enlighten  the  wise 
men  of  Alexandria  by  a  recommendation  of  Jewish 
theology.  The  writer  of  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon 
aims  to  reconcile  the  Jewish  mind  to  the  specula- 


THE  APOCRYPHA.  95 

tions  of  the  Greeks.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
Jewish  book,  the  "Wisdom  of  Joshua,  or  Jesus/'  is 
earlier  in  date  than  the  Alexandrian  "  Wisdom  of 
SoloTnon."  It  is  called  Ecclesiasticus,  because  it 
was  the  first  of  the  '^Libri  Ecclesiastici,"  that  is, 
books  which  were  read  in  the  Christian  Churches, 
though  not  canonical.  "  It  was  for  the  Jews  of 
Alexandria  first,  and  therefore  the  Christians, 
'  The  Church  Bookl  *  the  favourite  book  of  eccle- 
siastical edification,'  *  the  Whole  Duty  of  Man,' 
*  the  Imitation,'  *  the  summary  of  all  virtues,'  as  it 
was  called  in  its  original  title"  (The  Jewish  Church, 
III.,  267).  We  may  place  it  at  about  the  year  180 
B.C.  "  The  grandson  of  its  author  arrived  in  Alex- 
andria in  the  close  of  the  troubled  reign  of  Ptolemy 
Physcon  (132  B.C.),  the  second  of  those  kings  who 
"were  renowned  amongst  the  Gentiles  for  bearing, 
seriously  or  ironically,  the  name  of  'benefactor' 
(Euergetes).  When  amongst  his  countrymen  in 
the  foreign  land,  he  discovered  *no  slight  differ- 
ence of  education,'  and  at  the  same  time  a  keen 
desire  to  become  instructed  in  the  customs  of  their 
fatbers,  he  found  no  task  more  worthy  of  his  labour, 
knowledge,  and  sleepless  study  than  to  translate 
into  Greek  this  collection  of  all  that  was  most  prac- 
tical in  the  precepts  and  most  inspiring  in  the 
history  of  his  people.     Jerusalem  is  still  the  centre 


96  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

and  Palestine  the  horizon  of  his  thoughts.  A 
priesthood,  with  their  offerings,  their  dues,  and  their 
stately  appearance,  are  to  him  the  most  prominent 
figures  of  the  Jewish  community.  Nor  is  the  modern 
institution  of  the  scribes  forgotten.  He  draws  his 
images  of  grandeur  from  the  cedars  of  Lebanon, 
and  the  fir-trees  that  clothe  the  sides  of  Hernion, 
from  the  terebinth  with  its  spreading  branches ; 
his  images  of  beauty  from  the  palm-trees  in  the 
tropical  heat  of  Engedi,  or  from  the  roses,  and  lilies, 
and  fragrant  shade  by  the  well-watered  gardens  of 
Jericho.  The  drops  of  bitterness  which  well  up 
amidst  his  exuberant  flow  of  patriotic  thanksgiv- 
ing are  all  discharged  within  that  narrow  range 
of  vision,  which  fixed  his  whole  theological  and 
national  animosity  on  the  three  hostile  tribes  that 
penned  in  the  little  Jewish  colony, — the  Edomites 
on  the  south,  the  Philistines  on  the  west,  and  the 
Samaritans  on  the  north.  And  in  accordance  with 
this  local  and  almost  provincial  limitation  is  the 
absence  of  those  wider  oriental  or  western  aspects 
which  abound  in  other  canonical  or  Deutero-canoni- 
cal  books  of  this  period.  It  is,  after  Malachi,  the 
one  specimen  of  a  purely  Palestinian  treatise  during 
this  period"  (Stanley,  III,  268). 

This  book  was  written  in  Hebrew,  and  translated 
into  Greek  by  the  grandson  of  the  author.     The 


THE  APOCEYPHA.  97 

short  preface,  wliicli  is  attached  by  the  translator 
or  by  some  other  hand,  evidently  aims  to  connect 
the  book  with  the  earlier  writings  of  the  prophets. 
The  Joshua  who  wrote  the  book  had  a  grandfather 
Joshua,  who  "  lived  after  the  people  had  been  led 
away  captive  and  called  home  again,  and  almost 
after  all  the  prophets."  He  was  "  a  man  of  great 
diligence  and  wisdom  amono^  the  Hebrews,  who  did 
not  only  gather  the  grave  and  short  sentences  of 
wise  men  that  had  been  before  him,  but  himself 
also  uttered  some  of  his  own,  full  of  much  under- 
standing and  wisdom."  The  book  was  begun  by 
the  elder  Joshua,  left  unfinished  to  his  son  Sirach, 
and  handed  on  to  the  Joshua  or  Jesus,  the  son  of 
Sirach,  who  gave  it  his  name,  compiling  it  into  one 
volume,  "  intituling  it  both  by  his  own  name,  his 
father's  name,  and  his  grandfathers."  The  grand- 
son of  the  writer  of  the  book  tells  us  that  he  has 
translated  it  into  Greek,  and  asks  pardon  "  wherein 
we  may  seem  to  come  short  of  some  words,  which 
we  have  laboured  to  interpret.  For  the  same 
things  uttered  in  Hebrew  and  translated  into 
another  tongue  have  not  the  same  force  in  them; 
and  not  only  these  things,  but  the  law  itself  and 
the  prophets  and  the  rest  of  the  books,  have  no 
small  difference  when  they  are  spoken  in  their  own 
langjuas^e."     He  sets  it  forth  "  for  them  also,  which 


1)8  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

in  a  strange  country  are  willing  to  learn,  being 
prepared  before  in  manners  to  live  after  the  law." 
There  is  rather  a  mixture  in  the  book  of  the  old 
and  the  new.  In  some  places  the  moral  law  is 
placed  above  the  ceremonial,  but  in  others  the 
ceremonial  is  exalted.  There  is  a  tone  of  mild 
wisdom  running  through  the  whole,  which  plainly 
is  intended  to  attract  the  foreigner  and  harmonise 
with  the  broader  spirit  of  the  Gentile  world;  at 
the  same  time  there  is  a  strong  national  feeling 
expressed  at  times,  and  especially  at  the  end,  in 
the  celebration  of  the  heroes  of  old,  "  Let  us  now 
praise  famous  men  and  the  fathers  that  begat  us." 
The  hero-worship  which  begins  in  remote  antiquity 
culminates  in  the  magnificent  description  of  the 
typical  Simon  the  Just,  who  probably  lived  about 
the  time  of  the  grandfather  of  the  author.  The 
book  was  well  adapted  for  its  purpose,  to  recom- 
mend Jewish  thought  and  custom  to  the  Alexan- 
drians. 

But  the  other  work  which  we  have  mentioned, 
The  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  though  its  object  was 
similar,  to  conciliate  the  Greek  mind  and  the 
Jewish  to  one  another,  is  very  difi'erent  and  pro- 
bably much  later  in  date.  Some,  as  Jerome  and 
others  of  the  Fathers,  have  ascribed  it  to  Philo  ; 
though  it  is  not  likely  to  have  been  composed  so 


THE  APOCRYPHA.  99 

late  as  his  time.     Some  have  even  traced,  as  they 
supposed,   the   hand  of  a  Christian.      It   is   best 
regarded    as    proceeding     from    the   Alexandrian 
school    of    devout,    contemplative   Judaism,    and 
was  possibly  written  about  a  hundred  years  be- 
fore Christ.     The  whole  subject  of  its  authorship 
and  date  is  still  under  discussion,  and  cannot  as 
yet  be  decided.     But  the  character  of  the  book 
forbids  the  supposition  that  it  was  written  by  a 
Christian  hand.    As  coming  from  Alexandria  it  is  a 
most  impressive  and  deeply  interesting  illustration 
of  the  influence  of  philosophical  thought  on  the 
Jewish  mind.     We  must  reserve  a  full  examination 
of  its  doctrine  as  preparatory  to  Christianity  to  a 
later  opportunity.     Meanwhile  we  would  draw  at- 
tention to  the  very  distinct  mixture  of  philosophy 
with  religion  which,  although,  as   the   title  seems 
to  imply,  there  may  be  some  early  indications  in 
the   writings    of    Solomon   of  a   tendency   which 
might   be   developed   into   some   such   form,  was 
yet  a  new  feature  in  Jewish  thought,  and  almost 
unknown   in   Palestine   in   such  bold   utterances. 
There   can  be  no   doubt   that   the  writer  of  the 
"  Wisdom  of  Solomon  "  was  a  Platonist.      Such 
lofty  teaching  was   suited   to   the   atmosphere   of 
Alexandria,  and  was  taken  up  by  men  like  Philo, 
"  who  laboured  to  show  that  all  that  was  true  and 


100  FOUR  CENTURIES  OP  SILENCE. 

good  in  heathen  speculations  could  be  found  in 
the  Law  of  Moses  and  in  the  writings  of  the 
prophets."  "  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  Jilleth  the 
ivorld,  and  that  which  containeth  all  things  ho/th 
knowledge  of  the  voice."  "  Wisdom,  which  is  the 
ivorker  of  all  things,  taught  me ;  for  in  her  is  an 
understanding  spirit,  holy,  one  only,  manifold, 
subtle,  lively,  clear,  undefiled,  plain,  not  subject  to 
hurt,  loving  the  thing  that  is  good,  quick,  which 
cannot  he  letted,  ready  to  do  good,  etc.  She  passeth 
and  goeth  through  all  things  by  reason  of  her 
pureness.  For  she  is  the  breath  of  the  power  of 
God,  and  a  pure  influence  flowing  from  the  glory 
of  the  Almighty ;  therefore  can  no  defiled  thing  fall 
into  her.  For  she  is  the  brightness  of  the  Everlast- 
ing Light,  the  unspotted  mirror  of  the  power  of 
Ood,  and  the  image  of  His  goodness.  And  being 
but  one  she  can  do  all  things;  and  remaining  in 
herself  she  maketh  all  things  neiu,  and  in  all  ages, 
entering  into  holy  souls,  she  maketh  them  friends  of 
God  and  prophets''  (Wisdom  vii.  22-27).  '^ Pre- 
luding s  of  a  high  philosophy  and  faith,''  these  may 
be  said  to  be,  as  Dean  Stanley  calls  them.  They 
were  more  than  philosophical ;  they  were  deeply 
religious.  They  express  the  yearning  of  the  Alex- 
andrian mind  after  the  higher  revelations,  which 
were  supplied  by  the   more   definite   teaching  of 


THE  APOCRYPHA.  101 

Christianity.  Immortality  and  Resurrection  are 
very  clearly  there — though  not  as  in  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  based  upon  facts.  The  preciousness  of  the 
soul  is  connected  with  the  Divine  Truth  and  Love. 
"  God  created  man  to  he  immortal,  and  made  him 
an  image  of  His  oivn  eternity.  To  know  God 
is  perfect  righteousness.  To  know  His  yov^er  is 
the  root  of  immortality'^  (Wisdom  iii.  2,  iv.  13, 
V.  15,  XV.  3).  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  this  book  stands,  iu  some  sense,  by  itself  in 
the  Apocrypha.  Even  the  Wisdom  of  the  Son  of 
Sirach  does  not  approach  it  in  elevation  of  lan- 
guage. The  other  books  of  these  later  centuries, 
while  they  give  us  the  evidence  of  great  tenacity 
of  national  feeling  among  the  Jews,  betray  a  lax- 
ness  of  religious  life,  a  general  feebleness  and  self- 
righteousness,  which  show  that  the  Books  of  Wis- 
dom were  the  composition  of  sages,  who  were  no 
proper  examples  of  the  people  generally ;  while  in 
some  of  the  later  compositions,  as  Esdras  and 
Esther,  there  is  a  wild  excitement  of  Messianic 
expectation,  betokening  the  spirit  of  despondency 
and  of  fanaticism  which  had  taken  the  place  of 
vital  religion. 


102  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 


CHAPTER  VL 

THE   SCRIBES   AND   THEIR  TRADITIONS. 

rpHEKE  is  no  more  important  fact  in  the  history 
of  the  Jewish  people  than  the  change  which 
was  necessitated  in  their  mode  of  worship,  and  in 
their  religion  generally,  by  the  national  disinte- 
gration which  took  place  in  the  two  captivities, 
of  the  ten  tribes  to  Assyria,  and  of  Judah  to  Baby- 
lon. There  could  be  nothing  like  the  old  Temple 
worship  resumed  in  the  land  of  their  oppressors. 
The  generation  which  grew  up  in  Mesopotamia 
must  have  depended  upon  congregational  services 
for  their  mutual  instruction  and  edification,  in  so 
far  as  it  was  public  and  united.  It  is  not  likely, 
however,  that  in  the  "  strange  land  "  edifices  would 
be  erected,  especially  as  the  captivity  would  endure 
but  seventy  years,  and  the  people  would  be  con- 
tinually reminded  by  their  prophets  and  preachers 
that  the  Temple  would  be  rebuilt  and  the  worship 
of  former  times  restored.  The  "  congregation"  was 
recognised  from  the  beginning  of  the  nation.     And 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  103 

it  would  seem  that  the  Greek  word  "synagogue" 
was  at  first  employed  as  exactly  equivalent  to  tlie 
Hebrew  words  which  represented  the  gathering 
together  of  the  people  in  an  appointed  meeting  and 
to  one  place.  The  word  "  House  "  was  added  when 
the  custom  of  meeting  in  one  building  became 
fixed. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  Jews  themselves  have 
held  that  synagogues  are  very  ancient,  even  dating 
from  patriarchal  times.  In  the  time  of  the  pro- 
phets there  certainly  must  have  been  "gatherings," 
which  resembled  the  subsequent  services  held  in 
synagogues.  In  2  Kings  iv.  23  there  is  an  allusion 
to  such  periodical  meetings.  The  prophets  were 
preachers,  and  they  were  disconnected  altogether 
from  the  Temple.  The  existing  books  of  prophecy 
are  the  remains  of  ministries,  in  some  cases  extend- 
ing over  many  years,  exercised,  it  is  true,  in  various 
places,  but  by  means  chiefly  of  popular  gatherings. 
We  can  well  imagine,  therefore,  that  when  the 
Temple  was  destroyed  the  religious  life  of  the 
Jews  was  maintained  by  congregational  worship. 
The  Book  of  Ezekiel  contains  several  very  poitited 
allusions  to  such  gatherinofs,  and  the  ministries  of 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah  must  have  given  a  fresh  im- 
petus to  what  was  virtually  an  institution,  the 
regular  service   of  an  assembly.     At   what  time 


104  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

synagogues  were  erected  it  is  impossible  to  say, 
but  we  cannot  be  far  wrong  if  we  assign  them  to 
tlie  period  of  Ezra,  when  the  Scriptures  were  re- 
published and  no  doubt  began  to  be  copied  and 
spread  once  more  among  the  people.  Maimonides 
tells  us  that  the  rule  became  fixed,  that  where 
there  were  "  ten  persons  of  full  age  and  free  con- 
dition always  at  leisure  to  attend  a  religious 
service,  there  a  synagogue  was  to  be  erected." 
Ten  such  persons  were  considered  the  nucleus  of 
a  permanent  congregation  or  church,  that  the 
services  might  be  punctually  performed. 

Now  the  service  of  the  synagogue  consisted 
mainly  in  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  and  the 
ofiering  of  prayers.  At  first  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  reading  was  confined  to  the  Pentateuch  ; 
but  in  later  times,  and  probably  from  the  closing 
of  the  Old  Testament  Canon,  about  the  third  cen- 
tury before  Christ,  the  reading  of  the  prophets  was 
added  to  that  of  the  Law,  and  eventually  the 
Hagiographa  was  admitted  into  the  service.  It 
will  be  seen  at  once  that  this  systematising  of  the 
public  gatherings  and  solemn  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures amongst  the  people,  would  enlarge  the  num- 
ber of  those  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  work 
of  multiplying  copies  of  the  sacred  books,  and  of 
reading  them   intelligently   to  the    congregation. 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TEADITIONS.  105 

Out  of  such  a  beginning  there  came  great  issues. 
The  whole  religious  life  of  the  Jews  was  most 
materially  affected  by  the  rise  of  the  school  of 
Scribes,  which  might  be  said  to  follow  upon  the 
period  of  prophetic  ministry,  and  which  developed 
the  very  powerful  element  of  Rahhinism,  dominant 
for  centuries  in  the  synagogues  of  the  East,  both 
in  Palestine  and  in  Mesopotamia ;  and  at  the  time 
of  our  Lord  the  prevailing  religious  influence 
among  the  educated  and  strict  Jews,  especially  at 
Jerusalem.  We  must  describe  briefly  the  growth 
of  this  remarkable  element  in  the  Jewish  religious 
world,  for  without  a  clear  understanding  of  the 
state  of  mind  which  characterised  the  Jews  of 
Palestine  and  the  East  generally,  we  cannot  appre- 
ciate the  importance  of  that  division  which  took 
place  about  three  centuries  before  Christ  in  the 
religious  views  of  the  people.  Those  who  came 
under  the  influence  of  Gentile  thought  in  Egypt 
formed  a  school  of  Judaism  very  different  from  the 
school  of  the  Scribes.  Traditionalism  may  be  said 
to  be  the  main  feature  of  the  Eastern  Jews  who 
remained  in  Palestine.  While  separate  from  that 
traditionalism,  really  although  not  nominally  op- 
posed to  it,  there  grew  up  in  Egypt  the  school  of 
philosophical  Jews,  who  made  less  of  traditions 
because  they  made  more  of  the  broader  and  more 


]  06  FOUR  CENTURIES  OP  SILENCE. 

human  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament.  How  it 
was  that  traditions  came  to  be  so  vital  a  part  of 
the  religion  of  the  Scribes  we  must  now  explain. 

The  fundamental  fact  round  which  the  whole  of 
the  Jewish  religion  gathered,  was  the  giving  of  the 
Law  to  Moses  upon  Mount  Sinai.  Upon  that  Law 
as  a  basis  the  constitution  in  Church  and  State  was 
built  up.  The  Books  of  Moses,  which  contained 
the  records  of  that  special  Divine  revelation  at 
Sinai,  were  the  Pentateuch,  which  the  Jews  called 
The  Law  or  Thorah,  because  of  the  close  connec- 
tion of  all  contained  in  those  books  with  the 
worship  of  the  Temple  and  the  constitution  of  the 
nation.  But  after  the  giving  of  the  Law  there 
were  other  Divine  gifts,  as  the  wisdom  of  the 
elders,  the  expositions  and  interpretations  which 
first  were  orally  delivered  by  Moses  himself  to  his 
contemporaries,  and  then  subsequently  were  em- 
bodied in  the  writings  of  the  prophets  and  psalmists, 
and  otliers  who  were  under  the  power  of  Inspira- 
tion. This,  in  distinction  from  the  written  Thorah, 
was  the  Kabhala,  that  which  was  ''received''  from 
God.  At  first,  and  probably  until  about  two 
centuries  before  Christ,  the  view  held  in  regard  to 
this  inspiration  outside  the  Thorah  was  that  it  was 
authoritative  but  secondary.  Hence  the  Prophets 
and  Hagiographa  were  never  placed  in  exactly  the 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  107 

same  position  as  tlie  Pentateuch,  and  until  tbe  time 
o£  Simon  the  Just,  about  three  hundred  years  be- 
fore Christ,  were  not  publicly  read  in  the  syna-, 
gogue.  But  there  grew  up,  in  course  of  time,  an 
immense  amount  of  traditional  matter,  some  of 
which  no  doubt  was  very  ancient  and  of  genuine 
worth,  as  having  come  down  through  Ezra  from 
the  best  days  of  the  Jewish  Church;  but  other 
traditions  were  the  result  of  the  studies  and  public 
expositions  of  the  Scribes. 

When  a  passage  out  of  the  Law  was  read  from 
the  ancient  Scriptures,  which  were  written  in 
Hebrew,  it  was  necessary  to  expound  the  meaning 
of  it,  besides  translating  the  very  words  themselves, 
in  the  current  language  of  the  people,  which  was 
Chaldee  or  Aramaic,  varying  with  the  district 
where  the  synagogue  was  situated.  The  interpret- 
ing scribe  was  the  Meturgeman,  and  the  interpre- 
tation itself  was  the  Targum.  These  Targums 
were  for  a  time,  no  doubt,  mere  extempore  dis- 
courses, but  they  were  remembered  and  at  last 
.  were  written  down.  Hence  we  find,  shortly  before 
the  time  of  our  Lord,  the  celebrated  Targum 
of  Onkelos,  and  about  two  hundred  years  after- 
wards the  Targum  of  Jonathan. 

But  the  preservation  of  the  Targums  was  by  no 
means   all  that   came  out   of  the   school   of  the 


108  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

Scribes  and  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  after  the 
Captivity.  There  was  anotlier  result  which  was 
perhaps  even  more  momentous  in  its  influence  on 
the  Jewish  people.  The  motto  which  Simon  the 
Just  is  said  to  have  left  behind  him  was  prophetic. 
It  pointed  to  the  developments  of  the  Rabbinical 
school.  "Be  careful  in  judgment,  set  up  many 
Talmidim  {i.e.,  learned  men),  and  make  a  hedge 
about  the  Thorah."  The  prosperity  of  the  Jewish 
world,  be  said,  depended  "on  faithfulness  to  the 
Law  of  Moses,  on  preservation  of  the  Levitical 
worship,  and  on  works  of  righteousness."  This  is 
the  true  basis  of  the  religion  which  grew  up  after 
Simon's  time  during  the  three  centuries  which 
preceded  Christianity.  Learned  Rabbis  did  arise, 
and  they  were  multiplied.  They  studied  the  Law, 
and  in  order  to  make  a  hedge  of  defence  about  it, 
they  taught  the  doctrine  that  the  authority  of 
traditions  was  equal  to,  if  not  greater  than  that  of 
the  written  Law.  The  writing  down  of  those 
traditions  was  not  at  first  necessary,  because  they 
were  comparatively  few  and  might  be  remembered, 
but  they  naturally  had  to  be  written  as  they  multi- 
plied and  were  mingled  with  the  comments  and 
opinions  of  successive  teachers.  The  current  view 
was  that  Ezra  and  his  contemporaries  collected  the 
chief  traditions  and  handed  them  down ;  but  they 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  109 

(the  Rabbis)  can  give  no  authority  for  this  beyond 
the  mention  of  a  line  of  learned  men,  as,  e.g., 
Antigonus  of  Socho,  Joses  Ben  Jochanan,  Joses  Ben 
Joezer,  Nathan  the  Arbelite,  Joshua  Ben  Perachiah, 
Judali  Ben  Tabbai  and  Simeon  Ben  Shabach,  She- 
maiah  and  Abtalion,  Hillel  and  Shammai,  and  so 
on  to  Simeon,  Gamaliel,  Simeon  Ben  Gamaliel  and 
Gamaliel  Ben  Simeon,  and  others,  to  Rabbi  Judah 
Hakkadosli,  who  is  said  to  have  written  them  down 
in  the  Mishna.  There  were  traditions  of  all  kinds, 
corrections  of  the  text,  various  readings,  explana- 
tions, paraphrases,  ritual  expansions,  rubrics,  and 
then  opinions  and  illustrations,  fables  and  myths, 
which  became  an  almost  immeasurable  accumula- 
tion of  the  learning  and  folly  of  scholars  and 
preachers  during  five  hundred  years,  and  perhaps 
for  a  still  longer  time. 

The  Talmud  is  formed  of  three  parts,  which  are 
supposed  to  include  the  bulk  of  this  tradition. 
The  Mishna,  or  Second  Law,  is  the  original  text 
of  the  traditions,  and  the  two  Gemaras,  one 
emanating  from  Jerusalem  and  the  other  from 
Babylon,  contain  learned  commentaries  upon  the 
Mishna,  the  one  of  the  fourth  and  the  other  of  the 
sixth  century  of  our  era.  There  was  another  im- 
portant distinction  which  the  Jews  held  in  regard 
to  these  writings.      Some  of  them  were  Halacha, 


110  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

i.e. J  doctrines  and  rules  of  life — those  which  con- 
cerned the  walk  of  the  faithful  Jew  ("  Halach" 
meaning  to  walk),  others  were  Haggadha  (that 
which  is  said),  expositions  and  illustrations,  which 
were  of  a  broader  and  looser  character,  like  the 
pleadings  of  an  advocate  in  distinction  from  the 
decisions  of  a  judge.  The  Mishna  contains  both 
Halacha  and  Haggadha,  i.e.,  both  rules  and  com- 
mentary, and  was  itself  an  accumulation  of  sixty- 
three  tractates,  divided  into  chapters  and  verses; 
and  then  followed  the  miscellaneous  mass  of  tra- 
ditions and  opinions  which  is  found  in  the  later 
books  of  the  Gemaras.  "  In  course  of  time,"  says 
Dr.  Edersheim  (whose  account  of  the  Talmud  is  very 
full  and  interesting  in  his  "  Life  and  Times  of 
Jesus  the  Messiah,"  vol.  i.,  chapter  viii.),  "the  dis- 
cussions, illustrations,  explanations,  and  additions 
to  which  the  Mishna  gave  rise,  whether  in  its 
application  or  in  the  Academies  of  the  Rabbis,  were 
authoritatively  collected  and  edited  in  what  are 
known  as  the  two  Talmuds  or  Gemaras.  If  we 
imagine  something  combining  law  reports,  a  Rab- 
binical *  Hansard,'  and  notes  of  a  theological  debat- 
ing club — all  thoroughly  Oriental,  full  of  digres- 
sions, anecdotes,  quaint  sayings,  fancies,  legends, 
and  too  often  of  what,  from  its  profanity,  super- 
stitions,  and  even   obscenity,    could    scarcely  be 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  Ill 

quoted,  we  may  form  some  general  idea  of  what 
the  Talmud  is." 

But  there  is  one  kind  of  tradition  which  we  must 
admit  is  of  the  greatest  value  in  the  transmission 
of  the  sacred  writings.  That  is  the  Masora,  a 
tradition  of  the  Jewish  scribes  themselves  in  copy- 
ing the  Scriptures.  The  copyists  were  accustomed 
to  write  down  on  the  margins  of  their  copies,  and 
wherever  they  could  find  space,  not  only  traditional 
readings  varying  from  the  text,  but  many  different 
kinds  of  notes,  which  were  held  to  be  worth  pre- 
serving, with  respect  to  the  Scripture.  These 
traditions  remained  for  centuries  locked  up  in 
manuscripts,  and  hidden  from  the  public  eye  by  a 
strange  enigmatical  method  of  writing ;  but  they 
were  partly  deciphered  and  published  in  the  six- 
teenth century  by  a  great  Jewish  scholar  who  be- 
came a  Christian,  Rabbi  Jacob  Ben  Chayim.  He 
was  followed  by  another  great  scholar,  Elias  Levita, 
who  published  the  "Massoreth  Hammasoreth," 
(Traditio  Traditionis),  1538.  These  works  pre- 
pared the  way,  though  at  an  interval  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  for  the  edition  of  the 
Masora  lately  published  by  Dr.  Ginsburg,  who  has 
devoted  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  his  laborious 
inquiries,  and  has  collected  the  traditional  read- 
ings and  comments  of  centuries  into   one   great 


112  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

work.  The  result  of  this  toil  cannot  be  estimated. 
Our  present  Hebrew  Bible  is  received  by  us  with- 
out question  at  the  hands  of  the  later  Jews  of  the 
sixth  century.  We  are  now  able  to  compare  it 
with  the  traditions  which  have  come  down  through 
many  ages,  and  which,  when  placed  side  by  side 
with  all  the  different  forms  of  the  text  which  can 
be  gathered  from  the  Targums  and  from  the  Tal- 
mud, as  well  as  from  ancient  versions,  will  enable 
us  to  purge  away  any  errors  whicli  have  crept  into 
the  Authorised  Text,  and  so  to  obtain,  as  nearly 
as  possible,  the  very  words  of  the  sacred  writers. 
Had  the  Eabbis  devoted  themselves  in  the  same 
manner  to  the  preservation  of  the  exact  form  of 
the  sacred  books  which  they  have  to  the  accumula- 
tion of  their  opinions  and  usages,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment would  have  been  handed  down  to  us  in  a 
more  perfect  state,  and  the  toil  of  our  modern 
scholar  would  have  been  rendered  unnecessary. 

But  what  was  Rahhinism,  regarded  as  an  element 
in  the  religious  life  of  the  Jewish  people  ?  We 
must  clearly  understand  the  difference  between  the 
spirit  of  these  traditions,  whether  we  regard  them 
in  the  Targums,  or  in  the  Talmud,  or  in  the  Masora, 
and  the  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament.  This  distinc- 
tion has  a  most  important  bearing  on  the  general 
subject   with   which   we    are   concerned   in   these 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  113 

chapters,  viz.,  the  preparation  which  was  made  in 
the  Jewish  people  for  the  new  doctrine,  the  "  Truth 
as  it  was  in  Christ  Jesus."  Now  the  evidence  of 
the  Targums  is  very  valuable  as  showing  that  the 
farther  we  go  back  the  more  authority  seems  to 
have  been  attached  to  the  written  "Word  of  God, 
the  less  to  the  mere  explanations  and  illustrations 
which  were  added.  The  later  Targums,  as  those 
of  Jonathan  Ben  Uzziel,  and  that  of  Jerusalem, 
were  full  of  extraneous  matter  which  corrupted  the 
Word  of  God;  but  the  following  account  of  the 
earliest  Targum,  that  of  Onkelos,  given  by  the  late 
Emanuel  Deutsch,  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible,  will  show  that  the  earlier  Scribes  had  no 
intention  to  overlay  the  Bible  with  tradition. 
"  The  language  of  the  Targum  is  Chaldee,  closely 
approaching  in  purity  of  idiom  to  that  of  Ezra  and 
Daniel.  It  follows  a  sober  and  clear,  though  not  a 
slavish,  exegesis,  and  keeps  as  closely  and  minutely 
to  the  text  as  is  at  all  consistent  with  its  purpose, 
viz.,  to  be  chiefly  and  above  all,  a  version  for  the 
people.  Its  explanations  of  difficult  and  obscure 
passages  bear  ample  witness  to  the  competence  of 
those  who  gave  it  its  final  shape,  and  infused  into 
it  a  rare  unity.  It  is  always  concise  and  clear  and 
dignified,  worthy  of  the  grandeur  of  its  subject. 
It  avoids  the  legendary  character  with  which  all 


114  FOUR  CENTURIES  OP  SILENCE. 

the  later  Targums  entwine  the  Biblical  word,  as 
far  as  even  circumstances  allow.  Only  in  the 
poetical  passages  it  was  compelled  to  yield,  though 
reluctantly,  to  the  popular  craving  for  Haggadah ; 
but  even  here  it  chooses  and  selects  with  rare  taste 
and  tact.  Generally  and  broadly  it  may  be  stated 
that  alterations  are  never  attempted,  save  for  the 
sake  of  clearness ;  tropical  terms  are  dissolved  by 
judicious  circumlocutions,  for  the  correctness  of 
which  the  authors  and  editors — in  possession  of 
the  living  tradition  of  a  language  still  written,  if 
not  spoken  in  their  day — certainly  seem  better 
judges  than  some  modern  critics,  who,  through 
their  own  incomplete  acquaintance  with  the  idiom, 
injudiciously  blame  Onkelos.  Highly  characteristic 
is  the  aversion  of  the  Targum  to  anthropopathies 
and  anthropomorphisms ;  in  fact,  to  any  term  which 
could  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitudes  lower  the  idea 
of  the  Highest  Being.  Yet  there  are  many  pas- 
sages retained  in  which  human  affections  and 
qualities  are  attributed  to  Him.  He  speaks.  He 
sees,  He  hears,  He  smells  the  odour  of  sacrifice,  is 
angry,  repents,  &c.  The  Targum  thus  showing 
itself  entirely  opposed  to  the  allegorising  and 
symbolising  tendencies  which  in  those,  and  still 
more  in  later  days,  were  prone  to  transform 
Biblical  history  itself  into  the  most  extraordinary 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  115 

legends  and  fairy  tales,  with  or  without  a  moral. 
The  Targum,  however,  while  retainiDg  terms  like 
the  arm  of  God,  the  right  hand  of  God,  the  finger 
of  God, — for  power.  Providence,  &c.,  replaces  terms 
like  foot,  front,  back  of  God,  by  the  fitting  figura- 
tive meaning.  We  must  notice,  further,  its  repug- 
nance to  bring  the  Divine  Being  into  too  close 
contact,  as  it  were,  with  man.  It  erects  a  kind  of 
reverential  barrier,  a  sort  of  invisible  medium  of 
awful  reverence,  between  the  Creator  and  the  crea- 
ture. Thus,  terms  like  '  the  Word '  (Logos,  Sansc. 
Oin),  the  Shechinah  (Holy  Presence  of  God's  ma- 
jesty, *  the  Glory ') ;  further,  human  beings  talk- 
ing not  to  but  before  God,  are  frequent.  The  same 
care,  in  a  minor  degree,  is  taken  of  the  dignity  of 
the  person  of  the  patriarchs,  who,  though  the  Scrip- 
ture may  expose  their  weaknesses,  were  not  to  be 
held  up  in  their  iniquities  before  the  multitude, 
whose  ancestors  and  ideals  they  were.  That  the 
most  curious  varrepa  irporepa  and  anachronisms 
occur,  such  as  Jacob  studying  the  Thorah  in  the 
academy  of  Shem,  &c.,  is  due  to  the  then  current 
typifying  tendencies  of  the  Haggadah.  Some  ex- 
tremely cautious,  withal  poetical,  alterations  also 
occur  when  the  patriarchs  speak  of  having  acquired 
something  by  violent  means ;  as  Jacob  (Gen.  xlviii. 
22)  by  his  'sword  and  bow,'  which  two  words  be- 


116  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

come  in  the  Targum,  '  prayers  and  supplications ;  * 
but  the  points  of  the  Targum  which  deserve  serious 
study  are  those  which  treat  of  prayer,  study  of  the 
Law,  prophecy,  angelology,  and  the  Messiah." 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  descriptiou  of  the  most 
ancient  Targum,   that  while  the  full-blown  Kab- 
binism  of  the  Talmud  is  not  to  be  found  there,  the 
germ  of  much  which  was  afterwards  developed  can 
be  recognised.    The  absence  of  direct  spiritual  mani- 
festations in  prophets  who  were  able  to  testify  to 
what  God  had  spoken  to  them,  led  to  a  superstitious 
use  of  the  Scripture,  and  an  endeavour  to  supply 
the  deficiency  of  personal  inspiration  by  means  of 
a  doctrine  of  ^^  emanations,''  Sephiroth,  of  which 
there  were  said  to  be  ten,  viz.,  Crown,  Wisdom, 
Intelligence,  Mercy,  Judgment,  Beauty,  Triumph, 
Praise,  Foundation,  Kingdom.     The  basis  of  this 
doctrine  was  the  necessity  for  some  medium  of 
intercourse   between   the   infinite   and   the  finite. 
The  first  of  these  emanations,  "  The  Crown,"  was 
the  source  of  all  the  others,  "  En-Soph,''  the  Foun- 
tain of  Light.     This  may  be  a  dim  perception  of 
the  truth  which,  no  doubt,  underlies  all  the  teach- 
ins:  of  the  Old  Testament,  that  God  comes  into  the 
world  that  He  may  bring  back  the  world  to  Him- 
self; but  the  real  principle  which  was  at  work  in 
the  minds  of  the  later  Jews  was  the  dread  of  an- 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  117 

thropomorpliism,  the  worship  of  the  Divine  majesty, 
the  sense  of  estrangement  from  God,  and  therefore 
the  fear  of  offending  Him  by  undue  familiarity. 
We  recognise  the  same  loss  of  fellowship  in  the 
distinction  which  the  Rabbis  made  so  emphatic 
between  the  justice  of  God  and  the  mercy  of  God. 
They  were  gropiog  in  the  dark.  They  had  re- 
nounced the  great  truth  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood. 
They  were  going  about  to  establish  a  righteousness 
of  their  own  which  should  satisfy  the  claims  of 
Divine  justice,  and  they  had  ceased  to  believe  in 
the  Divine  righteousuess  as  the  gift  of  Divine  love. 
It  is  very  interesting  to  notice  the  attempt  to 
qualify  the  idea  of  Divine  revelation  by  such  terms 
as  Memra  and  Shechinah,  which  no  doubt  arose 
from  the  felt  necessity  of  some  veil  upon  the  coun- 
tenance of  God,  lest  man  should  be  consumed  by 
its  brightness.  The  term  Memra  occurs  179  times 
in  the  Targum  Oukelos,  and  very  many  times  in 
other  Targums.  The  word  seems  to  point  to  some 
kind  of  medium  of  revelation.  It  is  thought  by 
some  learned  writers  to  be  distinguishable  from  the 
Logos.  And  the  term  Shechinah  is  employed  along 
with  it,  though  as  distinct  from  it.  There  seems 
to  be  the  idea  of  personification  included  in  both, 
and  yet  they  are  not  used  as  identical  with  ''Mes- 
siah."    Rather  the  words  would  appear  to  be  a 


118  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

recollection  of  the  whole  system  of  revelation 
which  was  vouchsafed  to  the  fathers,  and  which 
included  both  personal  appearances  and  glorious 
manifestations.  To  some  degree  such  language 
may  be  said  to  represent  the  lingering  light  on  the 
horizon,  the  remains  of  primitive  revelation ;  but 
it  also  bears  witness  to  the  darkness  which  was 
deepening  in  the  minds  of  the  Jewish  people. 
They  were  satisfying  themselves  with  such  terms 
instead  of  the  simple  and  practical  phraseology  of 
the  Scriptures.  We  see  the  results  in  the  growth 
of  philosophical  mysticism  in  such  men  as  Philo  of 
Alexandria,  and  in  the  rapid  deterioration  of  the 
Eabbinical  schools  which  soon  substituted  the 
follies  of  the  Scribes  for  the  doctrine  of  the  Inspired 
Word.  The  Eabbis  set  the  traditions  of  their 
schools  above  the  written  Bible.  "  He  who  busies 
himself  with  Scripture  only,  has  merit  and  yet  no 
merit."  They  professed  the  greatest  reverence  for 
the  letter  of  Scripture,  but,  like  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics, they  regarded  it  as  a  mystery  which  was  com- 
mitted to  those  who  were  learned  in  the  traditions 
to  unfold.  The  "  hedge  about  the  Law  "  was  of 
greater  importance  than  the  Law  itself,  so  that,  as 
the  Lord  Jesus  told  them,  they  "made  void  the 
Law  through  their  traditions."  The  Sanhedrim  is 
declared  to  be  "the  foundation-stone  of  the  oral 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  119 

law  and  the  pillars  of  tlie  doctrine ;  and  from  tliem 
the  statute  and  the  judgment  goes  forth  to  all 
Israel.  They  have  the  warrant  of  the  law,  for  ifc 
is  said,  '  According  to  the  sentence  of  the  Law 
which  they  shall  teach  thee,'  &c.  (Deut.  xvii.  ii), 
which  is  an  affirmative  precept,  and  every  one  who 
believes  in  Moses  our  master,  and  in  his  Law,  is 
bound  to  rest  the  practice  of  the  Law  on  them, 
and  to  lean  on  them"  (Hilchoth  Mamrim,  c.  i.  i). 
And  yet,  strangely  enough,  the  infallibility  of  the 
Sanhedrim  is  denied  by  the  Eabbis.  They  were 
not  bound  to  follow  any  particular  council,  but 
only  that  which  is  largest  and  wisest.  It  has  been 
well  said,  by  an  anonymous  writer  on  the  subject, 
that  "  the  defectiveness,  inconsistency,  and  false- 
hood manifested  in  the  testimony  of  the  Eabbis 
on  the  authority  of  the  Sanhedrim  is  sufficient  to 
throw  discredit  on  all  their  claims.  They  have 
not  only  no  proof  from  Scripture,  but  are  not  able 
themselves  to  find  in  tradition  an  unbroken  chain 
of  testimony.  They  fail  at  the  very  outset.  After 
producing  two  links  they  leave  a  chasm  of  above 
two  hundred  years  unaccounted  for." 

Eabbinism  was  a  usurpation  of  the  learned  class, 
seeking  by  means  of  a  false  authority  to  obtain 
power  over  the  mass  of  the  nation.  The  old 
hierarchy  had,  in  fact,  perished,  and  the  power  of 


120  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

the  Pontificate  had  passed  away.  Eabbinism  sought 
to  succeed  to  that  power.  There  was  no  distinct 
body  of  doctrine  which  could  be  identified  with 
the  Eabbis.  "They  had  no  system  of  theology, 
only  what  ideas,  conjectures,  or  fancies  the  Hag- 
gadah  yielded,  concerniug  God,  angels,  demons, 
man,  his  future  destiny  and  present  position, 
and  Israel  with  its  past  history  and  future  glory. 
What  a  terrible  mass  of  conflicting  statements  and 
debasing  superstitions ;  legendary  colouring  of 
Biblical  narratives  and  scenes,  incd!ugruous  and 
degrading  to  them  ;  the  Almighty  Himself  and  His 
angels  taking  part  in  the  conversations  of  Eabbis 
and  the  discussions  of  Academies ;  nay,  forming  a 
kind  of  heavenly  Sanhedrim,  which  occasionally 
require  the  aid  of  an  earthly  Eabbi !  The  mira- 
culous merges  into  the  ridiculous,  and  even  the 
revolting.  Miraeulous  cures,  miraculous  supplies, 
miraculous  help,  all  for  the  glory  of  the  great 
Eabbis,  who  by  a  look  or  word  can  kill  and  restore 
to  life.  At  their  bidding  the  eyes  of  a  rival  full 
out  and  are  again  inserted.  Nay,  such  was  the 
veneration  due  to  Eabbis,  that  Eabbi  Joshua  used 
to  kiss  the  stone  on  which  Eabbi  Eliezer  sat  and 
lectured,  saying :  *  This  stone  is  like  Mount  Sinai, 
and  he  who  sat  on  it  like  the  ark  1 '  Modern 
ingenuity  has,  indeed,  striven  to   suggest  deeper 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  121 

symbolical  meaning  for  such  stories.  But  it  may 
be  asserted,  without  fear  of  well-grounded  contra- 
diction, that  if,  in  respect  of  substance,  there  is  not 
a  diflference,  but  a  total  divergence  of  fundameutal 
principles  between  Eabbinism  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment, comparison  between  them  is  not  possible  as 
regards  their  spirit.  Here  then  is  absolute  con- 
trariety" (Edersheim).  And  to  these  remarks  it 
may  be  added  tliat  the  spirit  of  Kabbinical  tra- 
ditionalism was  just  as  truly  a  departure  from  the 
teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  as  it  was  reproved 
and  contradicted  by  the  New.  There  are  very 
few  quotations  in  the  Talmud  from  the  books  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Most  of  tho^e  in  the  Mishna 
are  taken  from  the  Pentateuch.  "Eeferences  to 
any  other  Old  Testament  books  are  generally 
loosely  made,  and  serve  chiefly  as  points  dappui 
for  Rabbinical  sayings.  Scriptural  quotations 
occur  iu  5 1  out  of  the  63  tractates  of  the  Mishna, 
the  number  of  verses  quoted  being  430."  The 
chief  object  of  the  Talmud  is  to  glorify  the  Rabbis, 
not  to  open  the  meaning  of  God's  Book.  This,  no 
doubt,  was  partly  the  result  of  the  legal  spirit 
which  prevailed  among  the  Scribes.  They  begau 
with  the  worship  of  the  Law  simply  as  Law.  The 
worship  of  Law  must  necessarily  produce  a  legalism 
in  the  spirit  of  the  people.     "  It  lies  iu  the  nature 


122  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

of  every  such  law,  of  every  informal,  half-systematic 
code,  that  it  raises  questions  which  it  does  not 
solve.  Circumstances  change,  while  the  Law 
remains  the  same.  The  infinite  variety  of  life 
presents  cases  which  it  has  not  contemplated.  A 
Eoman  or  a  Greek  jurist  would  have  dealt  with 
them  on  general  principles  of  equity  or  polity. 
The  Jewish  teacher  could  recognise  no  principles 
beyond  the  precepts  of  the  Law.  To  him  they  all 
stood  on  the  same  footing,  were  all  equally  Divine. 
All  possible  cases  must  be  brought  within  their 
range,  decided  by  their  authority.  The  result 
showed  that  in  this,  as  in  other  instances,  the 
idolatry  of  the  letter  was  destructive  of  the  very 
reverence  in  which  it  had  originated.  Step  by  step 
the  Scribes  were  led  to  conclusions  at  which  we 
may  believe  the  earlier  representatives  of  the  order 
would  have  started  back  with  horror.  Decisions 
on  fresh  questions  were  accumulated  into  a  complex 
system  of  casuistry.  The  new  precepts,  still  trans- 
mitted orally,  more  precisely  fitting  into  the  cir- 
cumstances of  men's  lives  than  the  old,  came 
practically  to  take  its  place.  'The  words  of  the 
Scribes*  were  honoured  above  the  Law.  It  was  a 
greater  crime  to  ofi'end  against  them  than  against 
the  Law.     They  were  as  wine,  while  the  precepts 


THE  SCRIBES  AND  THEIR  TRADITIONS.  123 

of  the  Law  were  as  water "  (Dr.  E.  H.  Plumptre, 
art.  Scribes,  Smith's  Diet.). 

But  there  was  one  result  of  this  degeneracy  of 
the  learned  class  among  the  Jews  which  has  been 
overruled,  in  the  providence  of  God,  to  the  welfare 
of  His  people  and  the  promotion  of  His  glory. 
The  wide  separation  which  took  place  between  the 
writinors  of  such  men  and  of  those  who  were  under 
their  influence,  and  the  sacred  books  which  they 
continued  nominally  to  hold  in  reverence,  greatly 
assisted  subsequent  ages  in  the  determination  of 
the  authority  of  Scripture.  We  can  plainly  dis- 
tinguish between  the  inspiration  which  was  em- 
bodied in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  usurped 
authority  of  mere  ecclesiastics  and  scholars. 
Whether  we  look  into  the  Talmud  or  into  the 
Apocrypha  it  is  evident  that  the  Spirit  of  God  had 
ceased  to  speak  as  of  old.  There  are  utterances 
here  and  there  in  both  which  remind  us  that  the 
truth  of  God  still  exercised  a  powerful  influence 
over  the  hearts  of  men ;  but  such  utterances  are 
rather  like  reflections  of  what  had  been  already 
given  to  the  world  in  a  previous  age,  than  fresh 
and  original  vouchsafements.  And  it  is  remark- 
able that  the  most  valuable  of  these  reflections  of 
the  Old  Testament  teaching:  are  not  to  be  found 


124  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

among  the  Eabbis  of  Palestine  or  Mesopotamia,  but 
in  the  region  where  the  light  of  the  Old  Testament 
was  beginning  to  mingle  with  that  which  had  been 
discernible  among  the  most  cultured  of  the  heathen, 
which  had  gleamed,  if  it  could  not  be  said  that  it 
had  shone  like  a  sun  in  the  heavens,  in  Greek 
sages  and  Alexandrian  scholars.  -  Thus  the  facts  of 
history  became  prophetic.  The  Word  of  God  was 
about  to  be  taken  from  those  who  would  not 
follow  its  guidance,  and  would  be  given  to  another 
aation,  to  the  whole  world,  that  the  fruits  thereof 
might  be  brought  forth ;  that  the  ancient  promise 
might  be  fulfilled,  that  in  the  covenant  made  with 
Abraham  "  all  the  families  of  the  earth  should  be 
blessed."  The  Scribe  who  is  instructed  to  that 
larger  kingdom  is  not  one  that  is  learned  in 
Eabbinical  lore,  but  one  that  has  sat  at  the  feet  of 
Him  "of  whom  Moses  in  the  Law,  and  the  Pro- 
phets, did  write,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  "  the  Son  of 
God,  the  King  of  Israel" 


THE  RISE  OF  JEWISH  SECTS.  125 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  RISE   OP  JEWISH   SECTS. 

T^HE  history  of  the  Jewish  Church  is  full  of  very 
striking    lessons.      None,   perhaps,   is    more 
significant  than  that  which  we  learn  from  a  close 
attention  to  the  facts  connected  with  the  develop- 
ment  of  Jewish   Sects.      It   is   remarkable   that, 
amidst  all  changes  and  disturbances  in  the  Jewish 
mind,  from  the  time  of  the  Restoration  from  Cap- 
tivity onwards,  there  was  nothing  that  could  be 
properly  described  as  the  appearance  of  a  sect,  until 
about  two  centuries  before  the  Christian  era.     One 
might  have  expected  that  the   vigorous  work  of 
reformation  carried  on  by  Ezra  and  his  successor, 
Nehemiah,  and  others    of  the  Great   Synagogue,  . 
would  not  merely  have  awakened  a  spirit  of  oppo- 
sition, which  it  undoubtedly  did,  in  those  who  were 
more  or  less  under  the  influence  of  Gentile  thought 
and  life,  but  have  led  to  the  initiation  of  distinct 
religious  parties,  with  separate  designations,  within 
the  limits  of  the  Jewish  Church.     But  there  is  no 


126  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

evidence  that  there  was  any  such  formal  resistance 
to  the  Judaistic  revival.  If  it  had  existed  in  any 
other  shape  than  a  laxness  of  religious  life  on  the 
part  of  individuals,  it  would  certainly  have  revealed 
itself  in  some  form  which  would  be  regarded  as 
part  of  history.  But,  while  it  has  been  attempted, 
by  some  scholars  of  the  German  school,  to  prove 
that  the  influence  of  such  a  party  is  to  be  traced 
in  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  as,  e.g.,  in  Jonah, 
the  argument  breaks  down.  It  is  fatal  to  such  a 
view  that  there  is  no  literature  outside  the  Scrip- 
tures which  can  he  assigned  to  the  period  immedi- 
ately following  upon  Nehemiah  and  Malachi,  which 
there  certainly  would  have  been  had  the  reforms 
carried  out  by  Ezra  produced  anything  like  a  theo- 
logical division  among  the  people. 

The  rise  of  the  Egyptian  School  of  Judaism  is 
a  fact  quite  distinct,  and  enables  us,  by  its  distinct- 
ness, to  study  the  more  accurately  the  development 
of  Judaism  in  Palestine.  It  was  a  natural  result 
of  the  favour  shown  to  Jews  by  the  Ptolemies,  and 
the  rapid  growth  of  Greek  influence,  through  the 
power  which  the  Seleucidse  had  in  Palestine,  all  of 
which  we  may  date  from  about  285  B.C.  to  185  B.C., 
that  is  about  a  hundred  years — that  vast  numbers 
of  Jewish  people,  both  within  and  without  the  Holy 
Land  itself,  renounced  the   extreme  strictness  of 


THE  RISE  OF  JEWISH  SECTS.  127 

former  times ;  and,  while  preserving  their  external 
allegiance  to  Jerusalem,  were  more  and  more  with- 
drawn from  it  in  spirit  and  life.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  that  in  the  great  majority  of  instances 
this  widening  of  thought  and  relaxation  of  disci- 
pline was  accompanied  by  a  moral  corruption, 
and  often  by  an  imitation  of  heathen  manners, 
which  threatened  the  entire  destruction  of  the 
nation.  There  were  great  abuses,  no  doubt,  at 
Jerusalem  itself,  in  the  rule  of  the  High  Priests. 
But  so  long  as  the  temple  service  was  maintained 
there  was  a  rallying  point  for  Judaism.  And  we 
may  believe  that  the  synagogue  worship,  which 
had  increased  largely  after  the  time  of  Ezra,  and 
was  spread  over  Palestine,  supported,  as  it  was, 
by  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  as  the  fathers  had 
delivered  them,  especially  of  the  Pentateuch,  con- 
tributed to  keep  alive,  in  many  hearts,  the  hope 
that  a  Divine  blessing  would  yet  be  poured  out  on 
Jerusalem.  It  was  the  work  of  Divine  Providence, 
however,  in  the  external  events  of  the  world, 
which  brought  about  the  climax  from  which  we 
must  date  the  revival  of  Judaism. 

Now  it  would  be  a  great  misapprehension  of  the 
facts  to  suppose,  as  some  have  done,  that  there  was, 
for  two  hundred  years,  a  large-minded  and  catholic- 
spirited  school  among   the  Jews,   who  desired   to 


128  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

find  all  tliat  was  true  and  healthy  among  the 
heathen  religions  and  modes  of  life  and  thought, 
in  order  to  amalgamate  it  with  a  progressive 
Judaism.  There  is  no  evidence  of  any  such  school. 
There  were  individuals  who,  by  their  contact  with 
Greek  philosophy,  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  B.C.,  were  led  to  think  that  they  might 
fulfil  the  hopes  of  their  people  for  universal 
dominion  by  influencing  the  leading  minds  of  other 
nations  to  study  the  religious  views  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  and  to  become  proselytes.  But  there  was 
no  school  of  rationalistic  or  catholic  Jews  out  of 
Egypt.  The  Jews  of  Palestine  must  he  regarded 
as  the  true  Jewish  Church.  In  that,  until  the  end 
of  the  third  century  before  Christ,  there  was  no 
appearance  of  division,  though  there  was  no  doubt 
much  indifi'erence  and  moral  corruption.  The  real 
cause  of  a  new  state  of  things  was  the  disturbance 
of  the  political  atmosphere. 

For  fifty  years  and  more  the  two  great  neigh- 
bouring powers  of  Syria  and  Egypt,  represented 
by  the  Seleucidae  and  the  Ptolemies,  made  the  in- 
termediate country  of  Palestine  a  battle-ground  for 
supremacy.  The  eff*ect  was  very  disastrous  on  the 
Jewish  people.  Not  only  were  they  exposed  to 
the  evils  of  war,  but  their  leading  men  were 
seduced  into  a  most  demoralising  connection  with 


THE  RISE  OF  JEWISH  SECTS.  129 

the  rival  powers,  leading  them  to  disgraceful  acts 
of  treachery  to  their  own  nation.  It  was  still 
more  injurious  to  the  interests  of  the  Jewish 
religion  that  the  Greek  power,  which  ruled  from 
the  centre  of  Antioch,  at  last  gained  the  victory- 
over  the  degenerate  family  of  the  Ptolemies.  An- 
tioch could  exercise  a  much  more  direct  and  irre- 
sistible influence  than  Egypt.  Alexandria  was,  no 
doubt,  the  most  learned  city,  but  learning  does 
not  always  go  with  political  supremacy.  The 
Greek  mind  was  dominant.  Although  it  was 
speedily  to  succumb  before  the  rising  military 
power  of  Rome,  still  for  a  time  it  prevailed  in  the 
lingering  remnants  of  Alexander's  empire.  The 
tyranny  and  corruption  of  the  Syrian  rulers  came, 
as  a  blast  of  trouble,  to  quicken  into  flame  the 
dying  embers  of  religious  and  patriotic  zeal  in 
the  hearts  of  the  Jewish  people.  From  203  B.C. 
to  198  B.C.,  it  must  have  been  evident  to  all  true- 
minded  Jews  that  unless  there  was  a  rising-up  of 
their  national  life  against  their  oppressors,  they 
would  be  crushed  into  absolute  ruin,  between  the 
upper  and  nether  millstones.  "  The  decisive  con- 
test which  was  impending  was  in  the  most  inex- 
orable manner  driving  all  the  still  hidden  impulses 
of  the  age,  both  good  and  evil,  into  the  light  of 
day,  so  as  to  bring  out  clearly  what  was  within  the 


130  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

power  of  those  who  represented  the  aim  and  the 
force  of  the  whole  period  of  the  new  Jerusalem, 
viz.,  the  pious"  (Ewald). 

It  will  not  be  possible  in  this  place  to  describe 
the  course  of  events  which  led  to  the  revival  of 
Judaism.  The  extraordinary  family  of  the  Asmo- 
neans  or  Maccabees  were,  no  doubt,  only  represen- 
tatives of  a  large  number  of  zealots,  who  were 
brought  out  of  their  obscurity  by  the  force  of  great 
events.  Mattathias,  the  father  of  Judas  Macca- 
baeus,  was  a  man  himself  of  great  character,  and 
the  ruling  spirit  of  his  time.  He  must  not,  how- 
ever, be  regarded  as  an  adventurer,  called  out  by 
political  troubles.  He  was  a  religious  devotee,  in- 
spired to  great  efforts  by  the  danger  which  threat- 
ened the  future  of  his  people,  regarded  as  the 
people  of  Jehovah,  and  dependent  upon  the  temple 
at  Jerusalem.  It  was  '^  the  abomination  of  desola- 
tion "  w^itnessed  in  the  holy  place  which  roused  the 
Maccabees  and  their  companions  to  fury.  It  was 
the  recovery  df  the  temple  and  the  revival  of  the 
religious  position  of  Judaism,  which,  identified  as 
it  was  with  their  political  prosperity,  became  the 
ruling  aim  of  the  patriots.  And  the  rise  of  sects 
in  the  Jewish  Church  dates  from  this  remarkable 
period.  The  Sadducees,  Pharisees,  Essenes,  and 
others  had  no  distinct  existence  before  the  Macca- 


THE  EISE  OF  JEWISH  SECTS.  131 

bean  Eevival.     They  took  their  character  from  the 
religious  elements  at  work  at  that  time. 

In  several  places  in  the  Books  of  the  Maccabees 
we  find  a  reference  to  what  is  there  called  "the 
Mingling."  By  this  is.  intended  the  "mingling" 
of  Jews  with  Gentiles,  beyond  the  permission  of 
the  Law  of  Moses.  From  the  time  of  Ezra,  who 
protested  so  strongly  and  practically  against  the 
laxness  of  the  people  in  their  intercourse  with  sur- 
rounding nations,  there  had,  no  doubt,  been  a  party 
among  the  Jews  of  Palestine  which  was,  more  or 
less,  opposed  to  strict  Judaism.  But  it  is  an  error 
to  suppose  that  this  party  was  recognised  as  repre- 
seuting  any  religious  authority.  It  was  simply 
the  moral  refuse  of  the  nation.  There  was  a  school 
of  sages,  but  they  must  be  distinguished  from  the 
political  men  who,  for  their  own  selfish  ends,  played 
into  the  hands  of  Gentile  rulers.  But  it  is  not 
wonderful  that  there  should  be  a  conviction  still 
surviving  in  Palestine,  that  the  old  Ezra-spirit  was 
the  true  safety  of  the  nation.  On  the  basis  of  the 
Law  of  Moses  the  Jewish  State  rested.  Those 
who  really  loved  Israel  would  be  faithful  to  the 
Law.  Hence  arose,  during  the  Greek  period,  a  band 
of  religious  patriots,  who  were  called  the  Chasldim 
by  the  Jews,  and  the  Assideans  by  the  Greeks. 
They  were  ths  godly  or  piou^s,  the  Puritans  of  'that 


132  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

time,  who  resisted  the  process  which,  they  felt,  was 
fatal  both  to  religious  and  to  national  prosperity, 
of  intimacy  with,  and  imitation  of,  the  heathen. 
Now  it  has  been  alleged  by  some  that,  long  before 
the  time  of  the  Maccabean  Eeformation  there  was 
a  school  of  broad  thinkers  and  heretics  who  derived 
their  origin  from  one  Antigonus  of  Socho,  through 
a  disciple  Zadok,  and  flourished  in  the  first  half  of 
the  third  century  B.C.  But  the  tradition,  if  it  can 
be  said  to  be  worthy  of  the  name,  is  quite  worth- 
less. It  is  now  generally  agreed  that  the  Sadducees 
could  not  have  received  their  name  from  .^ac?o^, 
nor  have  come  into  existence  as  early  as  the  third 
century.  There  are  historians  of  the  rationalistic 
school,  like  Ewald,  who  would  fain  persuade  us 
that  the  Sadducees  were  a  continuation  of  a  school 
of  thinkers  among  the  Jews,  who  had  been  in 
existence  from  the  time  of  Ezra,  but  their  view  is 
not  borne  out  by  evidence.  The  Chastdim  were 
the  true  beginning  of  both  the  Pharisees  and 
Sadducees. 

For  a  considerable  time,  at  least  fifty  years,  there 
was  only  the  one  name  and  the  one  party,  that  of 
the  religious  zealots,  who  were  identified  with  the 
Maccabees.  A  few  references  to  these  are  made  in 
the  books  which  describe  the  history  of  the  great 
struggle  with  Antiochus  Epiphanes  and   his  sue- 


THE  RISE  OF  JEWISH  SECTS.  133 

cessors.  There  were  freethinkers,  no  doubt,  at 
that  time ;  but  Ewald  himself  admits  (vol.  v. 
p.  282),  "They  were  not  yet  called  Sadducees, 
but  simply  the  '  lawless '  or  ungodly,  and  some- 
times, in  stronger  language,  ^sinners J  "  This  clearly 
proves  that  there  was  no  practical  recognition,  at 
that  time,  of  the  necessity  of  intellectual  ortho- 
doxy. There  was  substantially  no  difference  of 
creed  among  the  Jews ;  but  the  school  of  the  Pious 
or  Chasidim  was  formed  for  the  better  observance 
of  the  Law  as  a  rule  of  worship  and  life.  "  They 
recovered  the  Law  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Gentiles 
and  out  of  the  hand  of  kings,  neither  suffered  they 
the  sinner  to  triumph"  (i  Mace.  ii.  48).  It  has  been 
suggested  by  Dr.  Edersheim  ("  Life  and  Times  of 
Jesus  the  Messiah,"  vol.  i.  p.  323)  that  both  the 
names  of  the  two  religious  sects  were  given  them 
with  reference  to  the  original  designation  of  the 
"  godly!'  There  would  naturally  arise  two  parties 
out  of  such  a  movement  as  that  which  was  com- 
menced by  the  Maccabees.  Some  would  be  pre- 
pared to  go  any  length  in  the  cause  of  reformation 
and  faithfulness  to  the  Law.  Others  would  consider 
themselves  the  moderate  party,  and  they  would  be 
likely  to  be  the  richer  and  more  worldly  men,  who 
did  not  feel  the  obligations  of  religion  so  supreme, 
but  sought  to  conciliate  the  heathen  rulers.     The 


134  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

zealots  became  Pharisees,  that  is,  *'  Perushim"  the 
separated  ones,  who  would  be  regarded  by  them- 
selves as  the  only  pious,  but  in  the  eyes  of  their 
opponents  were  "  righteous  over  much."  Dr.  Eder- 
sheim  'thinks  that  in  contrast  with  this  extreme 
party,  those  who  would  be  regarded  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  moderation  were  called  "  The  Righte- 
ous" i.e.,  those  who  laid  more  stress  on  practical 
righteousness  than  on  punctilious  observance  of 
the  letter  of  the  Law,  "  Zaddiquim"  or  Sadducees. 
"  There  is,  indeed,  an  admitted  linguistic  difficulty 
in  the  change  of  the  sound  i  into  u  (Zaddiquim 
into  Zadduquim),  but  may  it  not  have  been  that 
this  was  accomplished,  not  grammatically,  but  by 
popular  witticism  ?  Such  mode  of  giving  a  '  by- 
name '  to  a  party  or  government  is,  at  least,  not 
irrational,  nor  is  it  uncommon.  Some  wit  might 
have  suggested — Eead  not ' Zaddiquim,' the  righte- 
ous, but  'Zadduquim'  (from  Zadu),  'desolation,' 
'  destruction/  Whether  or  not  this  suggestion  ap- 
proves itself  to  critics,  the  derivation  of  Sadducees 
from  Zaddiquim  is  certainly  that  which  offers  most 
probability."  The  question  of  names  is,  however, 
of  comparatively  little  importance.  It  is  certain 
that  both  parties,  both  the  Pharisees  and  Saddu- 
cees, were  faithful  to  Judaism  so  far  as  external 
attachment  was  concerned.     They  remained  within 


THE  RISE  OF  JEWISH  SECTS,  135 

the  Synagogue.  They  were  not  "  separatists  "  in 
the  modern  sense  of  the  word ;  neither  were  they 
driven  away  from  Judaism  by  any  adverse  decree 
of  the  council. 

But  there  was  a  remarkable  body  of  men  who 
appear  somewhere  about  that  time,  or  a  little  later, 
the  Essenes  or  Esscei,  numbering  at  the  most  only 
about  four  thousand,  who  withdrew  themselves 
from  the  Temple  and  from  the  worship  of  the 
Jews,  and  retired  into  a  kind  of  hermit  life, 
for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  vows  of  celibacy 
and  asceticism.  But  little  is  known  of  them.  They 
are  not  mentioned  in  any  book  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  not  very  distinctly  in  the  writings  of 
the  Eabbis.  But  they  are  referred  to  with  great 
respect  by  Philo  and  Joseph  us.  "Whether  they 
were,  at  the  earliest  time,  what  they  afterwards 
became,  it  is  impossible  to  say ;  but  their  name 
seems  to  denote  that  they  were  "  outsiders,"  and 
their  peculiar  views  would  exclude  them  from  fel- 
lowship with  the  orthodox  Jews.  In  some  respects 
they  were  connected  with  both  Pharisees  and  Sad- 
ducees.  They  perhaps  borrowed  from  the  former 
their  extreme  views  of  purification,  and  from  the 
latter  their  denial  of  the  Resurrection.  But  while 
there  would  be  points  of  sympathy,  it  seems  most 
probable  that  the  Essenes  were  simply  Jews  who 


136  FOUR  CENTUllIES  OF  SILENCE. 

Lad  been  influenced  by  the  Parsee  religion,  whicli, 
at  that  time,  began  to  afi'ect  powerfully  the  creed 
of  the  more  western  nations.  They  worshipped  the 
sun  and  held  the  evil  of  matter,  which  were  two  of 
the  leading  distinctions  of  the  Persian  religion. 
They  might  be  said  to  be  in  some  sense  the  fore- 
runners of  the  gnostics,  who,  three  centuries  later, 
seriously  afi'ected  the  doctrine  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

These  remarkable  "  outsiders  "  were  the  only  in- 
stance of  a  break  in  the  external  uniformity  of  the 
Jewish  Church,  and  as  they  numbered  so  few  and 
removed  so  entirely  away  from  the  neighbourhood 
of  Jerusalem,  they  can  scarcely  be  said  to  form  an 
exception  to  the  rule  of  adherence  to  the  syna- 
gogue, which  the  Jews  observed  so  consistently 
through  many  ages.  Their  unique  character  sets 
ojff  very  distinctly  the  true  features  of  the  Phari- 
sees and  the  Sadducees,  and  shows  that  we  should 
greatly  misapprehend  the  position  of  those  two 
parties  in  the  Jewish  Church  if  we  regarded  them 
as  in  any  sense  contending  for  the  supremacy  of 
rule,  and  attempting  to  exclude  one  auother.  They 
represented  rather  tendencies  of  thought  and  life 
than  opposing  sects.  They  corresponded  more  with 
the  difierent  schools  of  theology  which  now  exist 
within  the  same  Established  Church  in  our  own 


THE  KISE  OF  JEWISH  SECTS.  137 

country — such  as  the  High  Church  and  the  Broad 
Church — than  with  the  distinct  religious  denomina- 
tions of  our  time,  worshipping  with  different  rites 
and  in  different  sanctuaries.  Pharisees  and  Saddu- 
cees  alike  recognised  the  Scriptures  as  their  autho- 
rity, and  nominally,  at  least,  united  in  maintaining 
the  services  of  the  Jewish  Temple.  This  is  an  impor- 
tant fact,  because  it  shows  us  very  clearly  that  the 
extra- scriptural  books  did  not  proceed  from  either 
of  these  so-called  sects,  unless  they  were  such 
books  as  the  Maccabees,  which  had  a  merely  his- 
torical authority ;  or,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Second 
Book  of  the  Maccabees,  were  intended  to  exalt  the 
martyrs  of  Judaism.  Such  works  as  Ecclesiasticus, 
and  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  Tobit,  and 
Judith,  and  the  Book  of  Enoch,  and  the  Psalter 
of  Solomon,  and  other  such  writings,  although 
those  who  wrote  them  might  have  been  attached 
to  one  or  other  party  among  the  Jews,  were  cer- 
tainly not  put  forth  with  any  sectarian  bias,  or  for 
any  purpose  of  rivalling  the  authority  of  Scripture. 
In  some  cases  their  aim  was  merely  to  help  the 
Jews  to  be  faithful  to  their  Law ;  in  others,  to  help 
the  Gentiles  to  study  the  Jewish  Scriptures ;  and 
in  others,  to  promote  the  Messianic  sentiment, 
which,  as  time  went  on,  became  a  source  of  conso- 
lation to  those  who  were  weary  of  their  national 


138  FOUR  CENTURIES  OP  SILENCE. 

troubles.  There  is  no  evidence  that  the  Jewish 
Church,  as  represented  by  its  leading  teachers  and 
councils,  ever  placed  such  works  side  by  side  with 
their  ancient  Scriptures.  They,  were  called  "  The 
outside  hooks,""  and  as  such  were  looked  upon  as 
identified  with  the  "  outsiders ^  We  cannot,  of 
course,  at  this  distance  of  time,  specify  which 
books  were  so  stamped  with  disapproval.  Some, 
no  doubt,  for  their  piety  would  be  favourably  re- 
garded. But  it  is  certain  that  the  extravagant 
doctrines  which  are  found  in  later  books,  especially 
on  the  subject  of  angels,  and  the  fabulous  stories 
which  mingled  with  historical  records,  as  we  see  in 
the  Second  Book  of  Maccabees  and  others,  were 
not  formally  snnctioned  by  the  Jews  as  though 
they  were  in  books  of  Scripture.  There  is  a  great 
difference  between  the  miracles  of  Scripture  and 
those  in  the  extra-scriptural  books,  and  between 
the  theology  of  the  prophets  and  that  of  the  post- 
prophetic  times.  Thus  the  Word  of  God  stands  by 
itself.  The  Jews  with  all  their  faults  did  not  wil- 
fully tamper  with  their  Scriptures.  The  diff"erent 
parties  in  their  Church  kept  watch  over  one 
another,  and  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  alike  ap- 
pealed to  the  same  standard  of  faith. 

In  confirmation   of  this  view  we  cannot  bring 
forward  a  better  witness  than  the  rationalistic  critic. 


THE  RTSE  OF  JEWISH  SECTS.  139 

Ewald.  Speaking  of  the  Pharisees,  lie  says  that 
during  the  period  of  persecution  and  external 
trouble  it  was  of  little  importance  to  find  exact 
Scripture  authority  for  their  beliefs,  because 
they  were  beliefs  that  were  the  demand  of  the 
age.  "But  piety  had  no  sooner  gained  the 
upper  hand  in  the  nation  than  it  began  to  con- 
found with  the  instruments  of  its  triumph  the 
source  from  which  it  had  obtained  them ;  it 
placed  the  Holy  Scriptures  still  higher,  and 
paid  them  a  more  scrupulous  veneration  than 
ever  before"  (v.  365).  "In  respect  of  the  sub- 
stance of  their  teachings,  they  proceeded  wholly  in 
accord  with  the  grand  line  of  development  which 
had  been  runnino^  throucrh  strict  Judaism  ever  since 
the  days  of  Ezra.  They  placed  the  Law  above 
everything  else,  without  on  that  account  rejecting 
the  other  records,  traditions,  and  usages  of  religion 
inherited  from  the  past;  they  approved  of  the 
customary  interpretation  of  Scripture,  without 
commending  the  extravagance  of  allegory  which 
was  striving  to  prevail,  and  in  other  respects  were 
glad  to  attach  themselves  somewhat  closely  in 
every  way  to  national  and  established  practices,  as 
well  as  to  good  moral  principles,  such  as  reverence 
for  age.  Of  Greek  philosophy  and  foreign  litera- 
ture .they  did  not  seek  much  knowledge,  nor  did 


140  FOUR  CENTURIES  OP  SILENCE. 

their  origin  permit  them  to,  though  they  were  too 
prudent  to  repudiate  it  altogether  in  this  age.  But 
they  well  understood  that  their  power  over  the 
people  depeuded  particularly  on  the  knowledge 
and  application  of  the  Holy  Scripture,  and  some  of 
their  ablest  teachers  accordingly  occupied  them- 
selves in  establishing  a  special  service  of  the  Law 
with  the  further  view  of  being  able  to  dispute  with 
the  Sadducees  on  all  important  subjects"  (p.  368). 
Thus  it  is  evident  that  the  Pharisees  were  great 
preservers  and  defenders  of  the  Word  of  God.  But 
as  we  know  that  they  were  opposed  by  the  Sad- 
ducees, and  the  Sadducees  were,  on  some  points, 
such  as  the  doctrine  of  angels  and  the  future  life, 
certainly  condemned  by  the  teaching  of  the  Old 
Testament,  as  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  distinctly  told 
them,  we  are  naturally  led  to  ask,  whether  the 
existence  of  the  less  orthodox  school,  for  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  before  Christ,  may  be  taken  as  any 
argument  against  the  view  which  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  hold  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  viz.,  that 
they  were  received  without  a  dissentient  voice  in 
the  Jewish  Church  as  the  supreme  authority  in 
doctrine  and  life.  We  will,  in  concluding  this  brief 
notice  of  the  Jewish  sects,  give  our  remaining  space 
to  this  important  point. 

The  one  chief  distinction  between  the  Sadducees 


THE  EISE  OF  JEWISH  SECTS.  141 

and  the  Pharisees  consisted  in  the  denial,  on  the 
part  of  the  former,  of  the  authority  attached  by  the 
latter  to  the  Oral  Law.  We  have  already  referred 
to  this  subject.  The  traditions  of  the  scribes  were 
no  doubt  very  ancient.  But  it  was  not  until  the 
rise  of  the  Pharisaic  school  that  they  were  persis- 
tently ascribed  to  Moses  himself.  The  attempt 
was  made,  on  the  part  of  the  Traditionalists,  to 
suppress  by  such  means  all  opposition  to  the  teach- 
ing of  tradition.  Now  the  Sadducees  did  not  deny 
the  value  of  traditions  as  such.  But  they  dis- 
tinctly opposed  the  attempt  to  manufacture  an 
external  sanction  by  the  falsification  of  history. 
They  revered  the  general  authority  of  the  fathers, 
but  they  distinguished  between  the  Word  of  God 
and  the  customs  which  had  accumulated  in  the 
course  of  ages.  The  result  was  that  the  authority 
of  the  Scriptures  was  confirmed.  An  appeal  to  the 
written  Word  at  any  time  silenced  discussion,  as  we 
see  in  the  instance  of  our  Lord's  rebuke  of  the 
Sadducees.  They  did  not  dare  to  deny  what  was 
on  the  page  of  Scripture,  though  they  had  sufiered 
a  false  view  of  its  meaning  to  remain  among  them. 
The  later  Sadducees  had  no  doubt  carried  much 
further  than  their  predecessors  the  sceptical  ten- 
dency which  had  arisen  among  them.  At  first 
they  were  simply  remonstrants  against  an  extreme 


142  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

traditionalism ;  but  tbey  soon  became  doubters  on 
some  of  the  doctrines  of  the  orthodox  creed.  The 
Pentateuch,  which  alone  was  regarded  as  the  legal 
standard  of  reference  on  disputed  points  of  belief, 
contained  no  distinct  statement  of  the  doctrine  of 
man's  resurrection  after  death.  But  after  the 
Captivity,  whether  under  the  influence  of  heathen 
teaching  or  as  a  natural  efi^ect  from  the  many 
troubles  which  came  upon  the  people,  the  doctrine 
of  a  future  life  and  of  a  resurrection  from  the  dead 
became  a  leading  point  of  the  orthodox  creed.  The 
Pharisees,  who  maintained  it  strongly,  sought 
support  for  their  view  outside  the  letter  of  Scrip- 
ture, in  the  traditions  of  the  fathers — and,  perhaps, 
were  inclined  to  put  the  later  Scriptures  higher  in 
authority,  and  almost  on  a  level  with  the  Penta- 
teuch, for  their  argument's  sake — such  a  doctrine, 
they  said,  could  not  have  been  left  by  God  uncer- 
tain. If  it  was  not  on  the  face  of  the  Law,  it  must 
have  been  communicated  orally.  "A  supple- 
mentary tradition  was  necessary,  indispensable. 
This  tradition  exists.  Moses  received  the  Law 
from  Sinai,  transmitted  it  to  Joshua,  Joshua  to  the 
Elders,  the  Elders  transmitted  it  to  the  Prophets, 
and  the  Prophets  to  the  men  of  the  Great  Syna- 
gogue "  (Klein).  Now  the  Sadducees  in  opposing 
this  theoiy  did  real  service  to  the  cause  of  Scrip- 


THE  RISE  OF  JEWISH  SECTS.  143 

ture  authority.  Just  as  in  tlie  Eeformation, 
Luther  and  his  followers,  by  their  opposition  to 
the  Eoman  Catholic  view  of  tradition,  brought  out 
more  clearly  and  positively  the  great  piinciple  of 
Protestantism,  "  the  Bible  and  the  Bible  alone,"  so 
these  opponents  of  traditionalism  in  the  Jewish 
Church,  while  not  themselves  sound  in  the  faith, 
were  witnesses  for  the  Word  of  God.  It  may  be  a 
matter  of  surprise  that  the  Sadducees  should  have 
rejected  the  existence  of  angels  or  spirits.  But  it 
is  not  certain  that  even  those  of  our  Lord's  days 
denied  a  spiritual  world  altogether,  but  only  the 
traditional  views  which  were  current  as  to  angelic 
ministry  and  the  complicated  system  of  angelic 
existences  which  we  find  in  such  *'  outside  works  " 
as  the  Book  of  Enoch.  There  is  no  trace,  either  in 
the  writings  of  Josephus  or  of  the  Rabbis,  of  an 
entire  denial  of  angelic  existence  on  the  part  of  the 
Sadducees.  Possibly  some  of  their  number  went 
farther  than  others,  and  sank  into  a  lower  depth  of 
scepticism.  But  the  main  point  to  which  we  desire 
to  draw  attention,  is  the  concurrence  of  both  sects 
in  upholding  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures.  The 
Pharisees  assumed  to  be  more  reverent  towards 
Scripture  than  their  opponents,  maintaining  that 
the  touch  of  the  sacred  book  defiled  the  hands; 
but  the  Sadducees,  in  denying  that  doctrine   of 


144  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

defilement,  only  resisted  tlie  extreme  ceremonialism 
of  the  Pharisees.  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that 
they  were  both  parties  within  the  Jewish  Church. 
There  was  no  real  hreah  up  of  the  religious  system 
and  unity.  The  Scriptures,  as  they  came  down  to 
the  time  of  Christianity,  were  the  deposit  which 
the  Jews,  with  all  their  faults,  faithfully  kept  and 
handed  on  to  their  successors.  Notwithstanding 
the  rise  among  them  of  divisions  of  opinion  and 
practice,  especially  in  the  observances  of  the  Law, 
there  was  no  desire  on  the  part  of  any  portion  of 
the  Jewish  nation  to  renounce  the  standard  given 
them  by  Divine  Inspiration.  From  the  time  of  the 
Maccabees,  at  latest,  the  written  Word  was  a  clearly 
defined  limit,  and  it  was  never  wilfully  trans- 
gressed. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       145 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   GROWTH   OF   THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION. 

TT  is  matter  of  history  that,  at  the  time  when 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world, 
there  was  a  widespread  expectation  of  a  personal 
Deliverer.  The  testimonies  of  Tacitus  and  Sueto- 
nius, the  visit  of  the  Magi  to  Bethlehem,  and  other 
well-known  facts,  point  to  the  prevalence  of  such 
feeling  among  heathen  nations.  Some  would  ac- 
count for  this  by  the  intercommunication  between 
Jews  and  Gentiles,  which  had  become  common  for 
many  years  before  Christ.  Whether  this  was  so  or 
not  can  scarcely  be  now  determined.  It  is,  how- 
ever, an  interesting  question,  which  is  not  beyond 
the  limits  of  research,  though  occasionally  sur- 
rounded with  obscurity ; — what  was  the  growth  of 
the  Messianic  expectation  from  the  time  when  the 
Jews  were  no  longer  visited  by  inspired  prophets  1 
We  must  not  be  perplexed  by  what  appears,  at  first 
sight,  an  enigma,  that,  with  the  canon  of  Scripture 
in  their  hands,  so  little  was  really  understood  and 

K 


146  FOUE  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

believed  by  the   Jewish  people   concerning  their 
promised  Deliverer. 

After  the  restoration  of  the  religious  and  politi- 
cal commonwealth  in  the  time  of  Ezra  and  Nehe- 
miah,  it  was  natural  that  the  chief  attention  of 
the  Scribes,  and  those  who  followed  their  guidance, 
should  be  directed  to  the  observance  and  preserva- 
tion of  the  Law.  No  doubt  there  was  always  in- 
cluded in  the  conception  of  the  Law  that  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  But  as  the  spiritual  life  of  the 
people  declined,  and  as  political  troubles  absorbed 
their  attention,  the  true  theocratic  idea  became 
buried  in  the  heap  of  confusion,  brought  upon  the 
nation  by  their  difficult  and  dangerous  position 
between  Syria  and  Egypt.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten, as  is  well  observed  by  Dr.  Edersheim,  that 
in  the  Old  Testament  "the  Messiah  and  His  history 
are  not  presented  as  something  separated  from, 
or  superadded  to,  Israel.  The  history,  the  institu- 
tions, and  the  predictions  of  Israel  ran  up  into 
Him."  We  look  back  from  a  personal  narrative  to 
the  Old  Testament,  and  find  there  predictions  or 
anticipations  on  almost  every  page,  which  were 
fulfilled  in  Christ ;  but  while  the  personal  facts 
were  still  in  the  future,  it  required  more  insight 
than  was  common  among  the  people  to  separate 
the  substance  from  the  shadow.     At  the  same  time 


GROWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       147 

it  is  evident,  from  the  later  writings  of  the  Eabbis, 
that  there  was,  all  along  tlie  ages  from  the  time 
of  the  prophets,  a  clear  and  decided  expectation. 
Sometimes  it  was  obscured  by  the  more  exciting 
thoughts  which  were  stirred  by  events  of  the  day ; 
but  it  was  never  completely  lost.  The  general  and 
deeply  laid  confidence  in  a  Divine  vocation  and  in 
a  future  Divine  restoration  kept  alive  the  more 
particular  hope  that  a  son  of  David  would  appear, 
who  would  be  the  ideal  Israel,  the  Prince  of  God, 
the  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King.  The  Eabbis  per- 
verted the  Scripture,  and  lowered  the  expectation 
to  the  level  of  their  ow^n  unspiritual  minds ;  but 
the  evidence  of  their  own  writings,  which  they 
themselves  declare  to  be  a  revival  of  the  tradition 
of  the  elders,  proves  that  the  main  ideas  of  the 
Old  Testament  were,  at  least,  nominally  preserved. 
Dr.  Edersheim  states  that  "a  careful  perusal  of 
their  Scripture  quotations  shows  that  the  main 
postulates  of  the  New  Testament  concerning  the 
Messiah  are  fully  supported  by  Eabbinic  state- 
ments. Thus,  such  doctrines  as  the  premundane 
existence  of  the  Messiah,  His  elevation  above  Moses, 
and  even  above  the  angels,  His  representative  cha- 
racter, His  cruel  sufferings  and  derision,  His  violent 
death,  and  that  for  His  people.  His  tvo7'k  on  be- 
half of  the  living  and  of  the  dead,  His  redemption 


US  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

and  restoration  of  Israel,  the  opposition  of  the 
Gentiles,  their  partial  judgment  and  conversion, 
the  prevalence  of  His  Law,  the  universal  blessings 
of  the  latter  days,  and  His  kingdom,  can  be  clearly- 
deduced  from  unquestioned  passages  in  ancient 
Eabbinic  writings.  Only,  as  we  might  expect,  all 
is  there  indistinct,  incoherent,  unexplained,  and 
from  a  much  lower  standpoint"  (vol.  i.  pp.   364, 

365). 

As  we  might  naturally  conclude,  the  Septuagint, 
being  under  the  influence  of  the  Alexandrian 
school,  seems  to  make  light  of  the  hope  of  Israel, 
or  rather  to  sublimate  it  into  philosophical  termi- 
nology, which  deprived  it  of  the  real  and  personal 
element  which  it  retained  in  the  old  Hebrew 
language.  In  the  passage  of  Isaiah  (chap.  ix.  6) 
which  seems  to  predict  the  Divine  Sonship  of  the 
Messiah,  the  Seventy  have  toned  down  the  words 
into  "Angel  of  the  great  Council;"  though  another 
reading  is  nearer  the  Hebrew.  "  Among  the  Jews 
of  Egypt,"  says  Dr.  Payne  Smith,  "a  belief  in 
a  personal  Messiah  soon  entirely  ceased.  Thus, 
whereas  in  Psalm  ex.  3,  the  words  of  the  Hebrew 
are  '  Of  the  womb  of  the  morning  is  the  dew  of 
thy  birth,'  the  Septuagint  paraj)hrases  it  thus, 
'  Of  the  womb  have  I  begotten  thee  before  the 
morning    dawn.'       They    acknowledge    the    pre- 


GEOWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       149 

existence  of  the  Messiah,  but  were  offended  at  the 
doctrine  of  His  birth  in  time.  Tiieir  idea  probably 
was  a  kind  of  Arianism,  that  the  Messiah  was  a 
superior  angel  or  pre-angelic  being.  But  their 
chief  dread  was  anthropomorphism,  bringing  God 
down  to  the  level  of  man." 

It  has  been  sometimes  remarked  that  there  is  no 
indication  of  Messianic  expectation  in  the  Apo- 
crypha. But  that  is  only  partly  correct.  There  is 
no  distinct  allusion  to  the  personal  Messiah  by 
name,  but  in  several  books  there  is  an  undercurrent 
of  hope  which  evidently  rests  upon  the  promises 
given  to  the  fathers.  The  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus 
dates,  according  to  some  critics,  from  before  the 
time  of  the  Maccabees,  and,  as  Ewald  has  observed, 
"The  Messianic  hopes  are  expressed  in  it  with 
plenty  of  force  in  various  passages,"  though  the 
general  tone  of  the  work  is  rather  expository  and 
practical  than  predictive.  The  House  of  David  is 
singled  out  as  the  line  of  rule,  and  the  triumph  of 
Israel  in  the  future  is  clearly  set  forth  (see  Ecclus. 
iv.  15  ;  X.  13-17 ;  xi.  5,  59  ;  xxxii.  17-19 ;  xxxiii. 
1-12;  xxxvi.  11-17;  xxxvii.  25;  xxxix.  23;  xlv. 
25,  59  ;  xlviii.  10,  15).  Again,  in  the  first  Booh  of 
Maccabees  we  read,  "  The  Jews  and  priests  ivere 
ivell  pleased  that  Simon  should  be  their  governor 
and  high  priest  for  ever,  until  there  should  arise  a 


150  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

faithful  prophet"  (xiv.  41).  They  pulled  down 
the  stones  of  the  defiled  Temple  and  laid  them  up, 
we  are  told,  "  in  the  mountain  of  the  Temple  in  a 
convenient  place,  until  there  should  come  a  prophet 
to  show  what  should  he  done  with  them"  (iv.  46). 
" Thus,"  says  Ewald,  "in  the  slow  course  of  the 
centuries  the  Messianic  hope  penetrates  once  more 
without  resistance  through  all  their  feelings,  not 
merely  in  periods  of  deep  distress  and  longing,  but 
in  those  also  of  the  highest  exaltation  and  joy  ; 
without  this  outlook  and  expectation  there  is  no 
pure  satisfaction  and  tranquillity.  In  the  book 
called  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  dating  probably 
as  late  as  50  B.C.,  or  even  still  nearer  the  Christian 
era,  and  coming  from  the  philosophical  school,  we 
meet  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  so  prominently 
expressed  that  the  work  has  been  ascribed  to  Philo, 
whose  writings  are  filled  with  that  term,  though 
employed  in  an  Alexandrian  sense.  The  character 
of  the  true  Kuler,  and  the  manner  in  which  He  is 
to  become  so,  are  exhibited  at  the  close  in  language 
of  the  utmost  eloquence  and  power.  It  is,  indeed, 
only  the  Messianic  hopes  of  eternal  retribution  and 
judgment  which  here  take  the  deepest  hold ;  and  all 
the  turns  and  steps  of  the  discourse  have  their 
original  type  in  the  Old  Testament"  (Ewald). 
"  Thine  almighty  word  leaped  down  from  heaven  out 


GROWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       151 

of  Thy  royal  throne,  as  a  fierce  man  of  ivar  into 
the  midst  of  a  land  of  destruction."  "It  touched 
the  heavens,  but  it  stood  upon  the  earth."  "In  all 
things,  0  Lord,  Tliou  didst  magnify  Thy  people  and 
glorify  them,  neither  didst  Thou  lightly  regard 
them,  hut  didst  assist  them  in  every  time  and 
place"  (Wisd.  xviii.  15,  16,  19,  22).  The  whole 
teaching  of  the  book  is  the  personification  of 
Divine  Wisdom  and  Love,  which  was  evidently 
regarded  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
blended  with  the  hope  of  a  personal  Deliverer.  The 
Alexandrian  School,  however,  were  inclined  to  sink 
the  expectation  in  a  wider  philosophico-religious 
system.  Some  of  the  books  now  included  in  the 
Apocrypha  are  of  very  late  origin,  as,  e.g.,  the 
Second  Esdras  (or  fourth  Book  of  Esdras,  as  it  is 
sometimes  called),  which  was  probably  written  by 
a  Christian  about  a  hundred  years  after  Christ.  It 
is  chiefly  Apocalyptic  in  character,  and  is  of  no 
value  as  evidence  of  the  Jewish  expectations  before 
Christ. 

There  are  several  remarkable  remains  of  the 
period  between  the  time  of  the  Maccabees  and  the 
Christian  era,  which  we  must  now  notice.  They 
leave  us  in  no  uncertainty  as  to  the  prevalence 
of  Messianic  expectations.  Indeed,  they  clearly 
show  that  during  the  last  hundred  years  of  the  pre- 


152  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OP  SILENCE. 

Christian  period,  the  predictions  of  Messiah  were 
very  prominently  before  the  Jewish  mind,  and 
became  something  like  a  fever  of  anticipation. 
This  was  especially  the  case  after  the  Eoman  con- 
quest of  Jerusalem  under  Pompey,  when  the 
political  state  of  Palestine  was  one  of  great  de- 
pression and  fear.  Then  the  people  began  to  look 
for  a  Deliverer  from  heaven  as  they  had  never 
done  before,  and  the  worldly-minded  amongst 
them  found  the  language  of  Scripture  suit  their 
purpose  as  they  put  into  it  their  own  sordid  and 
ambitious  views. 

The  BooTcs  of  the  Sibylline  Oracles  (see 
Fridlieb,  Oracula  Sihyllina,  1852)  is  a  very 
mingled  collection  of  Greek  verses  in  twelve 
books,  with  several  fragments.  Most  of  the 
Vork  is  worthless,  as  it  was  the  composition  of 
Christians,  endeavouring  to  support  Christianity 
by  forging  predictions  which  correspond  to  the 
facts  of  Christian  history.  There  is  one  book, 
however,  the  third,  which  is  regarded  by  critics  as 
dating  from  the  middle  of  the  second  century  be- 
fore Christ.  This  part  of  the  work  was  composed 
by  a  Hellenist  Jew,  and  is  full  of  allusion  to  the 
Messianic  hope.  We  find  a  picture  drawn  of  the 
times  of  the  Messiah  in  verses  652  to  807,  and  on 
this,  it  is  generally  admitted,   Virgil  founded  the 


GROWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       153 

predictions  of  the  golden  age  which  lie  has  intro- 
duced in  his  fourth  Eclogue,  and  which  is  found 
also  in  Hesiod  [Works  and  Days,  109],  and  in 
Ovid  in  his  Metamorphoses,  Book  I.  89  (cf. 
Euseb.,  Prsep.  Evan.,  i  7;  xii.  13).  Messiah  is 
described  as  the  King  sent  from  heaven,  who 
would  judge  every  man  in  blood  and  splendour  of 
fire  (vers.  285,  286).  He  is  the  King  whom  God 
will  send  from  the  sun.  AVhether  these  Sibylline 
verses  are  the  genuine  remains  of  heathen  antiquity 
or  not  must  remain  doubtful.  Oracles  of  the 
Sibyls  are  referred  to  by  Plato,  Aristotle,  Varro, 
Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus,  and  Livy ;  but  if  there 
ever  were  such,  they  probably  perished,  and  the 
mere  fact  that  they  had  existed  was  employed  as 
a  basis  on  which  to  build  up  the  forgeries  of  later 
times. 

But  of  much  greater  value  than  those  oracles  is 
the  remarkable  book  on  which  a  great  deal  has 
been  written  during  the  last  half  century,  The 
Booh  of  Enoch — and  from  which  it  is  supposed  by 
some  that  a  quotation  is  made  in  the  Epistle  of 
Jude  (vers.  14,  15).  Archbishop  Laurence  pub- 
lished a  translation  of  an  Ethiopic  version  in  1838, 
but  since  that  time  other  manuscripts  have  been 
collected,  and  a  new  translation  made  by  Professor 
Dillmann  (Leipzig,  1853).     It  is  supposed  to  have 


154  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

been  originally  written  in  Hebrew  or  Aramaic,  but 
we  possess  no  other  remains  of  it  than  we  find 
either  in  Ethiopia  or  Greek.  Some  have  professed 
to  be  able  to  recognise  three  different  elements  in 
the  work:  (i.)  A71  original  portion,  chapters  i.  to 
xxxvi.,  and  Ixxii.  to  cv.,  which  is  supposed  to  date 
about  175  B.C.  (2.)  The  Parables,  chapters  xxxvii. 
to  liv.  6 ;  Iv.  3  to  lix. ;  Ixi.  to  Ixiv. ;  Ixix.  26  to  Ixxi. 
This  portion  is  dated  about  the  time  of  Herod  the 
Great.  (3.)  The  Noachian  Sections,  together  with 
chapters  cvi.,  cvii.,  and  the  later  conclusion  in 
eviii.,  as  to  the  date  of  all  which  chapters  there  is 
great  doubt.  It  is  impossible  here  to  refer  more 
directly  to  these  chapters,  but  one  or  two  quota- 
tions from  what  is  now  regarded  as  the  oldest 
portion  of  the  work  will  give  an  idea  of  its  general 
character.  "  He  will  go  forth  from  His  habitations, 
the  Holy  and  Mighty  One,  the  God  of  the  world, 
who  will  hereafter  tread  u^jon  Mount  Sinai; 
appear  with  His  hosts,  and  be  manifested  in  the 
strength  of  His  power  from  heaven.  All  shall  be 
afraid,  and  the  watchers  shall  be  terrified."  *'  Be- 
hold He  comes  with  ten  thousand  of  His  saints,  to 
execute  judgment  upon  them,  and  destroy  the  wicked, 
and  reprove  all  the  carnal  for  everything  which 
the  sinful  and  ungodly  have  done  and  committed 
against  Him "  (chaps,  i.,  ii.)  -  This  may  be  said 


GROWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       155 

to  be  the  text  on  which  the  book  is  written.  It 
is  a  description  of  the  judgment  which  shall  be 
executed  on  the  ungodly,  and  an  exhortation  to 
the  righteous  to  stand  firm  and  be  patient:  ^' In 
these  days,  saith  the  Lord,  they  shall  call  to  the 
children  of  the  earth,  and  make  them  listen  to  their 
wisdom.  Show  them  that  you  are  their  leaders; 
and  that  renumeration  shall  take  place  over  the 
whole  earth ;  for  I  and  my  Son  will  for  ever  hold 
communion  with  them  in  the  paths  of  uprightness, 
while  they  are  still  alive.  Peace  shall  he  yours. 
Rejoice,  children  of  integrity,  in  the  truth  "  (chap, 
civ.)  Dr.  Edersheim  thinks  that  Professor  Schiirer 
has  conclusively  shown  that  The  Parables  are 
pre-Christian  in  date,  and  they  are  full  of  Messianic 
allusions.  In  this  portion  of  the  work  ^^  Messiah 
appears  hy  the  side  of  the  Ancient  of  Days,  His 
face  like  the  appearance  of  a  man,  and  yet  so 
lovely,  like  that  of  one  of  the  holy  angels.  This 
'Son  of  Man'  has,  and  with  Him  dwells,  all 
righteousness ;  He  reveals  the  treasures  of  all  that 
is  hidden,  being  chosen  by  the  Lord,  is  superior  to 
all  and  destined  to  subdue  and  destroy  all  the 
powers  and  kingdoms  of  wickedness  (chap,  xlvi.) 
Although  only  revealed  at  the  last.  His  name  had 
been  named  before  God,  before  sun  or  stars  were 
created.     He  is  the  staff  on  which  the  righteous 


1  5G  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

lean,  the  light  of  nations,  and  the  hope  of  all  who 
mourn  in  spirit.  All  are  to  how  down  before  Him, 
and  adore  Him,  and  for  this  He  was  chosen,  and 
hidden  with  God  before  the  world  was  created, 
and  will  continue  before  Him  for  ever  (chap, 
xlviii.)  This  '  Meet  One '  is  to  sit  on  the  throne 
of  glory  and  dwell  among  His  saints;  heaven  and 
earth  would  be  removed,  and  only  the  saints  would 
abide  on  the  renewed  earth  (cliap.  xlv.)  He  is 
mighty  in  all  the  secrets  of  righteousness,  and  un- 
righteousness would  flee  as  a  shadow,  because  His 
glory  loohed  from  eternity  to  eternity,  and  His 
power  from  generation  to  generation  (chap,  xlix.) 
Then  would  the  Earth,  Hades,  and  Hell  give  up 
their  dead,  and  Messiah,  sitting  on  His  throne, 
ivould  select  and  own  the  just,  and  open  up  all  the 
secrets  of  wisdom,  amidst  the  universal  joy  of 
ransomed  earth"  (chaps,  li.,  Ixi.,  Ixii.) 

The  remarks  of  Ewald  on  the  Book  of  Enoch  are 
so  full  of  interest  that  it  will  be  well  to  introduce 
them  here  at  length.  "  The  anxious  inquiry  into 
the  course  and  issue  of  human  history,  and  the 
zealous  search  for  the  finger  of  God  in  the  great 
stages  both  of  past  and  future,  even  in  separate 
events,  had  been  from  the  first  in  Israel  a  true  pro- 
phetic task.  But  the  attempt  to  adapt,  with  a 
certain  nicety,  the  period  of  the  past  to  an  appar- 


GROWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.      157 

ently  sacred  and  Divine  member,  in  order  to  infer 
from  it  with  the  more  confidence  a  Divice  termina- 
tion of  their  sufferings  and  trials,  only  came  into 
fashion  in  those  last  centuries,  in  the  complete 
extinction  of  the  living  prophetic  ministry.  For 
in  this  age  the  long  and  seemingly  unproductive 
lapse  of  time  during  which  the  Messianic  expecta- 
tion was  awaiting  its  fulfilment  had  given  to  this 
hope  a  greater  tension  and  solicitude,  while  the 
historical  survey  of  all  ages  embraced  a  much  wider 
scope  and  was  much  better  trained ;  and  the  pro- 
phetic writer,  because  he  could  be  nothing  more 
than  a  writer,  had  now  more  leisure  and  induce- 
ment for  the  learned  pursuit  of  such  historical  con- 
templations. The  longer  the  accomplishment  of 
the  Messianic  hope  was  delayed,  the  further  did 
the  prophetic  historical  survey,  impelled  by  a  sort 
of  internal  necessity,  extend  itself  over  the  remotest 
past,  as  though  it  could  find  no  rest  until  it 
reached  the  two  extreme  limits  of  universal  history 
itself.  Some  of  the  authors  of  the  Book  of  Enoch, 
accordingly,  have  striven  to  fathom  the  primeval 
ages  of  Christianity.  Amid  these  they  have  fixed 
their  gaze  chiefly  on  the  appearance  and  spiritual 
significance  of  Enoch,  distinguished  in  the  most 
wonderful  way  among  the  patriarchs  of  this  earliest 
epoch  of  the  world.     As  the  first  pious  man,  stand- 


158  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

ing  at  tlie  highest  stage  of  holiness,  and  living  not 
too  long  before  the  Flood,  he  seemed  the  fittest  to 
discourse  with  deep  emphasis  from  his  distant  and 
elevated  point,  covering  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world  and  their  consequences,  to  describe  in  grand 
pictures  the  steps  of  universal  history  pre-deter- 
mined  from  eternity  down  to  its  anticipated  end ; 
and  to  set  forth  the  ultimate  advent  of  the  Messi- 
anic salvation  as  certain  to  arrive,  even  though  late, 
and  not  till  after  many  and  long  vicissitudes.  At 
the  same  time  one  writer  specially  avails  himself 
of  the  opportunity,  as  Enoch  had  once  been  known 
as  the  protector  of  all  deeper  inquiry  and  know- 
ledge, and  had  consequently  been  himself  regarded 
as  the  first  great  sage  of  the  world,  to  make  him 
proclaim,  as  though  it  was  the  result  of  his  own 
experience,  a  sort  of  deeper  view  into  the  whole 
structure  of  the  universe  and  the  realm  of  spirits. 
This  noble  grasp  of  all  the  wonders  of  history  and 
of  the  spiritual  and  physical  world,  and  the  at- 
tempt to  combine  all  these  departments  more 
perfectly  together,  and  employ  them  collectively 
for  exhortation,  constitute  the  second  novelty  in 
this  book.  The  great  difiuseness  which  naturally 
results,  especially  in  comparison  with  the  rapid 
verity  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  proves  tbat  in  the 
form  in  which  we  now  have  it   the  book  is,  as  it 


GEOWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       159 

were,  the  precipitate  of  a  literature,  once  very 
active,  which  revolved  in  this  age  round  Enoch. 
Though,  however,  his  exhortations  flow  on  in  a 
broad  stream,  they  are,  at  the  same  time,  well 
calculated  to  seize  and  terrify  the  mind  ;  and  it  is 
these,  together  with  the  fragments  and  signs  of 
secret  wisdom  which  it  contains,  that  must  have 
procured  for  it  a  very  large  number  of  readers  in 
that  day.  It  succeeded  in  hitting  off  with  suffi- 
cient power  what  there  was  to  be  said  at  the  time ; 
and  its  earliest  portions,  which  appeared  in  fugi- 
tive leaves,  are  directed  with  the  utmost  keenness 
against  the  heathen  potentates  and  their  allies " 
(v.  pp.  347-349). 

Another  relic  of  the  pre-Christian  times  is  the 
small  work  called  "  The  Psalter  of  Solomon" 
This  is  a  collection  of  eighteen  hymns,  which  have 
been  evidently  composed  on  the  model  of  the 
canonical  Psalms,  and  although  in  a  Greek  version, 
as  they  have  come  down  to  us,  are  supposed  by 
the  critics  to  have  been  originally  written  in 
Hebrew.  Some,  as  Ewald,  have  dated  them  as 
early  as  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  but  the  greatest 
weight  of  opinion  inclines  to  a  later  period,  about 
fifty  years  before  Christ.  The  wail  of  national 
depression  is  distinctly  heard  in  these  hymns.  But 
at  the  same  time  the  spirit  of  the  Pharisee  breathes 


160  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

in  them.  Although  they  were  composed  after  the 
heat  of  the  great  struggle  was  over,  they  bear 
traces  of  the  patriotic  uprising  of  the  second  cen- 
tury. But  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  these 
strains  is  their  Messianic  character.  In  the  eleventh 
Psalm  there  is  an  anticipation  of  the  kingdom  of 
Messiah.  In  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth, 
there  is  a  prolonged  description  of  the  hope  of 
Israel,  and  how  it  will  be  realised.  -  The  following 
23articulars  may  be  gathered  from  this  poetic  lan- 
guage. The  expected  Messiah  was  to  be  a  King  of 
the  House  of  David  ;  He  is  the  Son  of  David.  He 
will  come  at  a  time  of  which  God  alone  knows, 
and  He  will  reim  as  a  Kino;  over  Israel.  In  char- 
acter  He  will  be  perfect,  a  righteous  King  who  is 
taught  of  God.  In  the  Greek  version,  it  is  remark- 
able that  the  language  should  correspond  exactly 
with  that  of  the  Septuagint — for  the  name  of  the 
expected  King  is  said  to  be  Christ  the  Lord  (xjoicrroy 
Kvpioi)  (cf.  LXX.  Lam.  iv.  20).  Another  striking 
element  in  the  description  is  the  absolute  purity 
ascribed  to  the  Messiah.  "He  is  pure  from  sin" 
and  is  able  to  banish  sinners  by  His  Word. 
"Never  in  His  days  will  He  be  infirm  towards 
His  God,  since  God  renders  Him  strong  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  wise  in  counsel,  with  might  and  right- 
eousness.    The  blessing  of  the  Lord  being  upon 


GIIOWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       161 

Ilim,  He  does  not  fail.  This  is  the  beauty  of  the 
King  of  Israel,  whom  God  hath  chosen,  to  set 
Him  over  the  house  of  Israel,  to  rule  it.  Thus 
invincible,  not  by  outward  might,  but  in  His 
God,  He  will  bring  His  people  the  blessings  of 
restoration  to  their  tribal  possessions  and  of  righte- 
ousness, but  break  in  pieces  His  enemies,  not  by 
outward  weapons,  but  by  the  word  of  His  mouth, 
purify  Jerusalem,  and  judge  the  nations,  who  will 
be  subject  to  His  rule,  and  behold  and  own  His 
glory"  (see  especially  Psalm  xvii.  vers.  25,  35, 
36,  41,  43,  47).  Ewald  thinks  that  these  striking 
Psalms  were  certainly  the  work  of  a  single  poet. 
"Amid  the  ashes  of  the  Messianic  hopes,  which  had 
slumbered  for  centuries,  they  were  kindled  anew 
with  the  most  marvellous  glow,  and  in  not  adduc- 
ing the  utterances  of  similar  expectations  at  an 
earlier  date,  these  songs  do  but  testify  to  the 
greater  purity  and  force  which  mark  the  inward- 
ness and  warmth  of  the  resurrection  of  these  hopes 
as  they  are  presented  here.  On  the  whole,  the 
songs  are  certainly,  in  many  passages,  only  an 
echo  of  various  pieces  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
their  beauty  simply  consists  in  their  great  sim- 
plicity and  sincerity;  but  they  afford  the  most 
striking  evidence  of  the  vigour  with  which  much 
that  was  finest  and  most  lasting  in  the  contents  of 

L 


162  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

the  Old  Testament  was  striving  to  reappear  in 
outward  life."  These  remarks  of  the  critic,  which 
are  made  on  the  supposition  that  the  book  dates 
about  a  century  and  a  half  before  Christ,  have  still 
greater  force  if  the  time  of  its  publication  must  be 
placed  a  century  later — for  the  political  degene- 
racy of  the  nation  proceeded  at  a  rapid  rate,  and 
after  the  introduction  of  the  Romans  on  the  scene, 
and  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  Pompey,  it  is  very 
full  of  significance  that  there  should  be  a  writer 
capable  of  so  much  genuine  Old  Testament  feeling ; 
calling  upon  his  contemporaries  to  recognise  that 
their  sufferings  were  due  to  their  violation  of  the 
covenant  and  their  departure  from  the  true  stan- 
dard of  Judaism,  and  pointing  to  the  Hope  of 
Messiah  as  the  one  true  consolation  of  Israel,  to 
which  all  were  invited  to  cling. 

We  have  some  direct  evidence  in  addition  to  the 
language  of  this  book,  the  Psalter  of  Solomon,  in 
the  character  ascribed  to  Anna,  the  prophetess,  and 
the  aged  Simeon,  in  the  reference  made  to  them 
in  St.  Luke's  Gospel  (ii.  25-38).  Anna  had  at- 
tended for  eighty  years  in  the  Temple  with  fast- 
ing and  prayer,  waiting  for  the  appearance  of  the 
Messiah.  We  cannot  doubt  that  there  were,  as  we 
shall  see  in  a  later  chapter,  in  Judea  at  least,  a 
number  of  faithful  souls  who  were  imbued  with  the 


GROWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       163 

same  expectation.  Josephus  himself  acknowledges 
that,  for  years  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
such  a  state  of  mind  was  widespread  iii  the  nation. 
Why  should  we  not  regard  the  Psalter  of  Solo- 
mon as  proceeding  from  such  a  remuant  of  the 
people,  actuated  by  a  lively  faith,  and  encouraging 
one  another  to  find  in  their  ancient  Scriptures  the 
hope  which  they  could  not  find  in  their  external 
condition  ?  No  doubt  there  were  great  differences 
among  those  who  entertained  such  expectations. 
Some  were  m^re  political  zealots  and  dreamers, 
others  were  deeply  religious  students  of  the  Word 
of  God  and  Israelites  indeed,  like  Nathaniel;  but 
the  evidence  of  the  fact  that  the  nation  was  per- 
vaded with  the  Messianic  idea  is  not  invalidated 
by  the  signs  of  division  and  separation  between 
the  true  and  the  false  Israel.  We  must  notice, 
therefore,  before  leaving  this  subject,  the  language 
of  the  Eabbinical  writers,  much  of  which,  no 
doubt,  was  written  down  after  the  Christian  era, 
but  none  the  less  bearing  witness  to  the  state  of 
mind  which  prevailed  before  the  advent  of  Messiah. 
It  has  already  been  observed  that  the  Targums  or 
Chaldee  paraphrases  are,  for  the  most  part,  of  later 
date  than  the  New  Testament.  That  of  Onkelos, 
however,  which  is  on  the  Pentateuch,  is  now  gene- 
rally admitted  to  be  before  our  era ;  that  of  Jonathan 


164  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

is  not  very  much  later.  Tlie  familiar  passages  in 
the  Old  Testament,  which  we  are  accustomed  to 
apply  to  the  Messiah,  were  plainly  so  interpreted 
by  the  Jews  themselves  at  that  time,  as,  e.g.,  Gen. 
iii.  15  :  "It  shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou  sbalt 
bruise  his  heel;"  Gen.  xlix.  10  :  "The  sceptre  shall 
not  depart  from  Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver  from  between 
his  feet,  until  Shiloh  come."  Modern  Jews  would 
fain  interpret  the  word  "sceptre"  as  meaning  rod  of 
chastisement,  that  is,  tliat  Judah  shall  be  punished 
for  rebellion  until  Shiloh  come  ;  but  both  Onkelos 
and  Jonathan,  and  the  Jerusalem  Targum  in  addi- 
tion, coijfirm  the  Christian  view.  The  prophecy  of 
Balaam  (Numb.  xxiv.  1 7)  is  thus  rendered  by  On- 
kelos :  "A  king  shall  rise  out  of  the  house  of  Jacob, 
and  the  Messiah  shall  be  accounted  out  of  the  house 
of  Israel,  who  shall  rule  over  all  the  sous  of  men." 
Targum  Jonathan  is  substantially  the  same.  Mai- 
monides  says  :  "  A  sceptre  shall  rise  out  of  Israel, 
this  is  the  King  Messiah,  and  shall  smite  the  corners 
of  Moab;  this  is  David,  as  it  is  written  (2  Sam. 
viii.  2),  And  he  smote  Moab,  &c.  And  He  shall 
bear  rule  over  the  children  of  Seth  ;  this  is  the 
King  Messiah,  of  whom  it  is  written  (Psalm  Ixxii. 
8),  He  shall  have  dominion  from  sea  to  sea,  and 
from  the  river  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  (Tract, 
Melakin,  chap.  xi.  sect,  i)."     The  same  coincidence 


GROWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       165 

between  the  Christian  and  Jewish  interpretations 
may  be  seen  in  such  passages  as  Isaiah  ix.  6,  7 ; 
xi.,  lii.,  liii.  ;  Micah  v.  2  ;  Psalms  ii.,  xiv.,  Ixxii.  ; 
and  other  instances  might  be  easily  adduced.  It 
has  been  remarked,  as  a  proof  of  the  general  ap- 
plication of  such  passages  to  the  Messiah  by  the 
Jews  of  the  time  preceding  the  Christian  era,  that 
works  which  came  from  the  Rabbinical  school  after 
the  appearance  of  the  Gospels  rather  exalted  than 
lowered  the  conception  of  Messiah's  dignity.  Had 
such  views  been  inconsistent  with  the  traditional 
ideas  they  would  certainly  not  have  been  published. 
AVhat  the  prevailiug  ideas  were  we  may  see  from 
such  a  work  as  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  pub- 
lished about  100  A.D.,  or  from  the  Fourth  Book  of 
Esdras  {2  Esdras  in  the  Apocrypha).  The  Eabbis 
said,  in  the  Midrash  on  Prov.  viii.  9,  that  there 
were  seven  things  created  before  the  world — the 
Throne  of  Glory,  Messiah,  the  King,  the  Thorah, 
ideal  Israel,  the  Temple,  Repentance,  and  Gehenna. 
"  In  the  Talmud,"  says  Dr.  Edersheim,  "  it  is  not 
only  implied  that  the  Messiah  may  already  be 
among  the  living,  but  a  strange  story  is  related, 
according  to  which  He  had  actually  been  born  in 
the  royal  palace  at  Bethlehem,  bore  the  name  of  the 
Comforter,  was  discovered  by  one  Eabbi  Judan  by 
a  peculiar  device,  but  had  been  carried  away  by  a 


166  FOUR  CENTCRIES  OF  SILENCE. 

storm.  Similarly,  tlie  Babylon  Talmud  represents 
Him  as  sitting  at  the  gate  of  Imperial  Eome.  In 
general,  the  idea  of  the  Messiah's  appearance  and 
concealment  is  familiar  to  Jewish  tradition."  There 
are  many  passages  which  teach  the  pre-existence 
and  the  premundane  existence  of  Messiah,  that  He 
should  subdue  Satan,  and  cast  him  into  hell.  The 
life  and  work  of  Moses  is  taken  as  typical  of  that 
of  the  Messiah,  and  it  is  declared  that  He  would 
be  "greater  than  the  Patriarchs,  higher  than  Moses, 
and  even  loftier  than  the  ministerinoj  anofels."  The 
teaching  of  the  Rabbis  was  the  teaching  of  the  syna- 
gogue. We  cannot  doubt  that  what  was  inserted 
in  the  Talmud,  though  exaggerated  in  language, 
was  regarded  as  representing  the  tradition  of  pre- 
ceding ages.  The  Jewish  Church  was  filled  with 
the  expectation  of  Messiah.  Those  who  rejected 
altogether  the  Christian  facts  did  not  dare  to  meet 
them  with  the  bold  denial  that  they  corresponded 
with  Old  Testament  predictions.  Rather  they  set 
over  against  the  cross  of  Christ,  which  condemned 
the  Rabbinical  spirit,  the  old  views  which  they 
would  not  admit  had  been  proved  erroneous  by 
the  history  of  their  people,  and  which  would  yet 
be  vindicated  by  a  future  manifestation  of  the  true 
Messiah. 

There  was  a  sceptical  school,  no  doubt,  among 


GROWTH  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATION.       1G7 

the  Jews,  and  tliere  were  worldly-minded  men  like 
Josepbus,  who  made  light  of  the  ancient  prophe- 
cies, but  they  did  not  represent  the  strict  and 
devout  Scribes — rather  they  were  those  who  came 
under  the  influence  of  foreign  nations,  and  resigned 
the  exalted  hope  of  their  fathers  for  the  sake  of 
sordid  advantages  and  the  favour  of  princes. 

The  language  of  Josephus  (Jewish  War,  bk.  vi. 
chap.  V.)  is  itself  his  condemnation,  for  that  any 
intelligent  reader  of  the  Old  Testament  should  so 
speak  of  Messianic  hopes  plainly  proves  that  he  is 
either  wilfully  blind  or  culpably  ignorant.  "  There 
was  an  ambitious  prophec}'","  he  says,  "found  in 
the  Sacred  Books,  that  about  those  times  One  shall 
arise  out  of  their  own  borders  and  put  the  whole 
world  under  His  obedience.  "Which  they,  indeed, 
applied  as  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  several  wise 
men  were  deceived  in  the  gloss  they  put  upon  the 
passages.  For  the  prophecy  meant  no  more  than 
Vespasian's  empire,  who  was  declared  emperor  in 
Judea."  Josephus  would  have  his  readers  believe 
that  the  Jews  founded  their  hopes  on  a  single  pre- 
diction. He  was  writing  to  please  the  powers  that 
were,  and  he  knew  that  he  was  misrepresenting 
the  Old  Testament.  There  w^ere  some,  however, 
who,  without  being  corrupt  and  degenerate,  like 
Josephus,  were  yet  sophisticated  by  the  influence 


168  FOUR  CENTUKIES  OF  SILENCE. 

of  lieathen  speculation  and  an  attempt  to  accommo- 
date tlie  ideas  of  Judaism  to  the  current  philosophy 
of  the  world.  By  their  exceptional  position  they 
enable  us  to  see  all  the  more  distinctly  that  the 
strict  Jews  of  Palestine  were  still,  even  though 
unintentionally  so,  witnesses  to  the  Divine  idea 
embodied  in  their  nation.  The  light  which  glowed 
on  the  horizon  of  the  Jewish  Church  foretold  the 
rising  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness. 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDRIM.  169 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   JEWISH   SANHEDRIM. 

TN  studying  the  state  of  the  Jewish  Church  during 
the  period  which  intervened  between  the  close 
of  the  Scripture  canon  and  the  coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  one  of  the  most  suggestive  and  help- 
ful facts  is  the  rise  of  The  Jewish  Sanhedrim. 
This  great  council  or  court  was  certainly  in  exist- 
ence at  the  time  of  Christ,  but  it  was  by  no  means 
what  it  had  been  at  previous  periods.  It  was  shorn 
of  much  of  its  power.  The  claims  which  it  put 
forth  are  obscure ;  and  beyond  the  fact  that  it 
could  be  called  together,  and  in  an  emergency 
sought  to  exercise  something  like  its  former  juris- 
diction, we  are  not  able  to  ascertain  much.  Whether 
the  power  of  life  and  death  was  ever,  properly  speak- 
ing, in  the  hands  of  the  council,  as  a  council,  we 
can  scarcely  decide.  The  reference  to  such  a  power, 
as  no  longer  legally  claimed,  may  have  been  a  wil- 
ful confusion,  in  the  language  of  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  between  the  judicial  powers  of  ancient 


170  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

times  and  the  supposed  identification  of  the  Sanhe- 
drim with  the  Courts  of  Justice.  No  doubt  such 
powers  had  been  exercised  by  the  Sanhedrim,  but 
it  was  at  a  time  when  they  were  mere  creatures  of 
heathen  rulers,  who  would  put  their  own  agents 
at  their  head. 

We  have  already,  in  another  place,  referred  to 
the  tradition  which  existed  among  the  Jews,  that 
Ezra  called  together  a  number  of  learned  and 
devout  men  to  assist  him  in  his  work  of  religious 
and  national  reformation.  They  were  called  The 
Great  Synagogue.  Simon  the  Just  is  said  to  have 
been  the  last  of  that  body,  the  meetings  of  which 
would  probably  cease  when  the  condition  of  Pales- 
tine became  politically  unfavourable  to  them.  It  is 
impossible  to  trace  the  links  of  connection  between 
such  a  body  and  the  Sanhedrim.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  any  decisions  were  placed  on  record 
or  that  any  meetings  were  held  after  the  time  of 
Malachi.  But  there  would  naturally  be  occasions 
when  the  leading  men  in  Jerusalem  would  be  called 
together  for  deliberation,  and  there  is  some  refer- 
ence to  such  occasions  to  be  found  in  the  Books  of 
the  Maccabees  (2  Mace.  i.  10),  'Hhe  Council^'  ''the 
Senate"  {d.  iv.  44;  xi.  27).  The  word  ''Sanhe- 
drim "  is  not  the  word  employed  in  these  references, 
but  Tepova-ia.     It  was  not  necessarily  a  religious 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDRIM.  171 

body  of  wbich  the  historian  speaks.  The  name 
"Sanhedrim"  although  it  is  formed  after  the 
Hebrew,  is  certainly  nothing  else  than  the  ordinary 
Greek  word  XweSpiov,  and  the  fact  that  the  Rabbis, 
notwithstanding  their  desire  to  give  ancient  pres- 
tige to  the  Sanhedrim,  have  been  unable  to  derive 
the  name  from  any  Hebrew  word,  clearly  proves 
that  it  had  its  origin  in  the  Greek  period,  and  pro- 
bably, as  a  distinct  assembly,  did  not  exist  before 
200  B.C.  It  is  an  attested  fact  (see  Livy  xiv.  32) 
that  the  Macedonian  name  for  such  a  council  was 
" Sunedroin"  which  became  " Sanhedrim "  amons: 
the  Jews. 

But  the  Rabbinical  writers  have  done  their  best 
to  connect  their  council  with  precedents  which  have 
Scripture  authority.  The  miserable  failure  of  such 
an  attempt  is  sufficient  evidence  of  the  lack  of  his- 
torical authority.  Had  it  been  possible  to  trace 
the  antecedents  of  the  Sanhedrim,  no  doubt  we 
should  have  found  them  in  the  Talmud,  but  instead 
of  that  we  have  passages  adduced  out  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, which  every  most  superficial  reader  can  see 
have  no  relevance  whatever  to  the  subject.  One 
passage  referred  to  is  Exodus  xviii.  24-26,  the 
appointment  of  judges  over  Israel  by  Moses  at  the 
suggestion  of  Jethro.  Another  is  Deuteronomy 
xTii.  9,  where  the  command  is  "  Thou  shalt  come 


172  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

unto  the  priests,  the  Levites,  and  unto  the  judge 
that  shall  be  in  those  days,  and  inquire."  In  Hil- 
choth  Mamrim  (chap.  i.  i)  we  read,  "The  Great 
Council  in  Jerusalem  is  the  foundation-stone  of 
the  Oral  Law  and  the  pillars  of  the  doctrine ;  and 
from  them  the  statute  and  the  judgment  go  forth 
to  all  Israel.  They  have  the  warrant  of  the  Law, 
for  it  is  said,  'According  to  the  sentence  of  the 
Law  which  they  shall  teach  thee,'  &c. ;  which  is  an 
affirmative  precept,  and  every  one  who  believes  in 
Moses,  our  master,  and  in  his  Law,  is  bound  to  rest 
the  practice  of  the  Law  on  them,  and  to  lean  on 
them."  The  other  passage  on  which  great  stress  is 
laid  is  Numbers  xi.  i6,  the  appointment  by  Moses 
of  the  seventy  elders.  Hilchoth  Sanhedrim,  ch.  i. 
2,  "  How  many  councils  (or  tribunals)  ought  to  be 
established  in  Israel,  and  of  how  many  members 
ought  they  to  consist  ?  Ans.  The  great  council  in 
the  Temple  called  the  Great  Sanhedrim  ought  to 
be  established  first,  and  the  number  of  its  members 
ought  to  be  seventy-one ;  for  it  is  said,  '  Gather 
unto  me  seventy  men  of  the  elders  of  Israel ; '  and 
to  them  Moses  is  to  be  added,  as  it  is  said,  '  And 
they  shall  stand  there  with  thee.'  This  makes 
seventy-one." 

In  the  same  work  we  read,  "  A  king  is  not  to 
be  appointed  except  by  the  decision  of  the  Great 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDRIM.  1 73 

Council  of  Seventy -one.  The  minor  councils 
through  the  tribes  and  towns  are  not  to  be 
established  except  by  the  Council  of  Seventy-one. 
Judgment  is  not  to  be  passed  on  a  tribe  that  has 
been  entirely  seduced,  nor  upon  a  false  prophet, 
nor  upon  a  high  priest  in  capital  cases,  except  by 
the  Great  Council.  (In  mere  money  matters  the 
tribunal  of  three  is  competent.)  In  like  manner 
an  elder  is  not  declared  rebellious,  nor  a  city  dealt 
with  as  seduced,  nor  the  water-bitters  administered 
to  the  suspected  adulteress,  except  by  the  Great 
Council.  Neither  is  an  addition  made  to  the  city 
nor  to  the  courts.  Neither  are  armies  led  forth  to 
the  wars  of  permission ;  nor  the  elders  led  forth  to 
measure  in  case  of  a  slain  person  (Deut.  xxi.  i,  &c.), 
except  by  command  of  the  Great  Council,  for  it  is 
said,  '  Every  great  matter  they  shall  bring  to  thee '  " 
(Exod.  xviii.  22).  The  reasoning  by  which  the 
Rabbis  try  to  support  the  authority  of  the  Sanhe- 
drim, and  so  of  the  Oral  Law,  is  nothing  better 
than  a  tissue  of  absurdities  and  falsehoods.  In  one 
case  they  suppose  a  person  living  in  the  time  of 
Moses  to  be  also  living  in  the  time  of  David.  And 
they  leap  one  great  period  of  two  hundred  years 
without  pretending  to  prove  that  there  was  any 
council  in  existence.  But  it  may  be  admitted  that 
there  probably  were  some  lingering  remains  of  the 


174  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

Great  Synagogue  in  the  Greek  period,  and  that  the 
assembly  spoken  of  in  the  first  Book  of  Maccabees, 
which  conferred  the  supreme  power  on  Simon, 
father  of  John  Hyrcanus,  was  the  same  council 
that  was  subsequently  styled  the  Sanhedrim.  "At 
Saramel  in  the  Great  Congregation  of  the  priests 
and  people  and  rulers  of  the  nation  and  elders  of 
the  country  were  these  things  notified  unto  us." 
So  was  it  written  on  the  tables  of  brass  set  upon 
pillars  in  Mount  Zion,  after  Simon  had  confirmed 
his  league  with  the  Eoman  Senate.  There  are 
coins  on  which  the  Sanhedrim  is  described  as  the 
Chehher  or  Senate  of  the  Jews.  John  Hyrcanus 
was  Greek  in  his  sympathies,  and  adopted  the  title 
'lovSa  ^aa-ikev^.  His  successor,  Alexander  Jannseus, 
quarrelled  with  the  leading  party  among  the  Jews, 
who  were  Pharisees,  but  on  his  death-bed  recom- 
mended his  wife  Salome  to  trust  true  Pharisees, 
while  she  avoided  the  painted  ones.  Salome  ac- 
cordingly gave  them  such  privileges  during  her 
reign  of  nine  years  that  they  ultimately  ventured 
to  summon  her  son  Hyrcanus  II.  before  their 
tribunal.  It  was  on  that  occasion  that  the  name 
*' Sanhedrim"  was  first  given.  Previous  to  that 
time,  whatever  council  there  was,  was  not  called 
by  the  Greek  name,  but  by  the  Jewish,  the  Great 
Synagogue  or  the  House  of  Judgment  (Beth  Din). 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDRIM.  175 

In  the  days  of  Herod  we  fiad  a  notice  of  the 
Sanhedrim  which  shows  that  they  had  little  real 
power,  though  still  the  show  of  it.  In  the  year 
47  B.C.,  Herod,  who  was  then  governor  of  Galilee, 
had  ventured  to  put  to  death  some  Jewish 
robbers,  and  was  called  before  the  council  that  he 
might  be  rebuked  for  his  presumption.  Hyrcanus, 
the  ruling  high  priest,  as  the  president  of  the 
council,  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  the  mothers  of 
the  victims  and  summoned  the  offender  before  the 
Sanhedrim.  Josephus  tells  us  that  Herod  appeared 
surrounded  with  armed  men,  and  that  Sextus,  the 
prefect  of  Syria,  sent  a  letter  to  Hyrcanus  calling 
upon  him  to  renounce  the  trial.  The  Sanhedrim 
therefore  dismissed  him  without  pronouncing  any 
punishment  on  his  crimes.  "  One  of  the  council, 
Samoeus,  told  them  plainly  that  they  would  repent 
of  their  leniency,  and  when  Herod  had  fixed  him- 
self in  the  kingdom  he  slew  every  one  presiding  in 
this  court,  nay,  and  Hyrcanus  himself,  but  excepted 
Samceus,  who,  for  his  extraordinary  moderation 
and  justice,  he  held  in  great  honour,  and  because 
when  Herod  and  Sextus  laid  siege  to  Jerusalem  he 
was  the  only  person  who  admonished  the  citizens 
to  receive  Herod,  representing  that  as  they  were 
so  very  wicked  it  was  next  to  an  impossibility 
to  escape  falling  into  his  power."     The  judges  in 


176  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

the  Sanbedrim  were  exceedingly  mortified  that 
Herod  escaped,  but  we  may  see  in  the  whole  occur- 
rence a  proof  that  their  power  was  already  gone, 
and  that  henceforth  they  would  confine  their  atten- 
tion almost  entirely  to  ecclesiastical  matters.  (See 
Joseph.  Antiq.  xiv.  9.) 

It  is,  however,  to  the  influence  of  the  Sanhedrim 
on  the  religious  views  of  the  people,  and  its  con- 
nection with  the  growth  of  Eabbinical  opinion,  that 
we  must  now  turn.  It  seems  probable  that  the 
extreme  arrogance  of  their  tone,  as  the  assumed 
teachers  and  authorised  religious  rulers,  was  the 
quite  late  development  of  the  fifty  years  imme- 
diately preceding  our  Lord,  when  the  purer  spirit 
of  the  patriotic  Asmoneans  had  died  out  and  the 
Pharisaic  party  had  degenerated  into  a  school  of 
self-righteous  dogmatists  and  ritualists.  It  was 
about  the  time  of  Herod  that  the  title  "Mabhi" 
came  into  use,  a  lengthened  form  of  the  title 
" Rah"  which  no  doubt  was  adopted  from  the  old 
Hebrew  or  Chaldee,  meaning  chief  or  prince,  and 
was  common  in  compound  words,  as  we  see  in 
Rabshakeh,  Eabmag,  Rabsaris,  &c.  The  applica- 
tion of  such  a  term  to  religious  teachers  points  to 
the  usurpation  of  authority  and  political  power  by 
the  Sanhedrim.  There  were  two  chief  officers  in 
the  council,  the  President  and  the  Vice-President. 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDRIM.  1 77 

The  latter  was  tlie  "  Father  of  the  House  of  Judg- 
ment," i.e.y  the  president  over  that  portion  of  the 
council  which  sat  as  a  court  in  ordinary  cases. 
The  chief  man,  however,  was  called  the  Prince,  or 
*' Nasi,"  and  the  fact  that  the  council  had  two 
heads,  or  presidents,  led  to  the  distinction  of 
schools  which  subsequently  arose.  Each  head 
gathered  round  him  a  number  of  followers,  who 
gave  special  heed  to  his  judgments  and  upheld  his 
authority.  It  is  on  the  ground  of  these  appoint- 
ments that  the  later  Eabbis  endeavour  to  place  the 
authority  of  their  tradition.  They  carry  back  the 
line  of  eminent  teachers  as  far  as  Simon  the  Just. 
He  delivered  the  tradition  to  Antigonus  of  Socho. 
Antigonus  of  Socho  handed  it  on  to  Joses  Ben 
Joezer  and  Joseph  Ben  Jochanan,  which  were  the 
first  of  the  ^'couples."  After  that  time  they  set 
forth  a  succession  of  ^'couples,''  although  they  are 
quite  unable  to  make  out  a  chronological  order. 
We  have  Joshua  Ben  Perachiah  and  Nathan  the 
Arbelite,  Simeon  Ben  Shetach  and  Jehuah  Ben 
Tabbai,  Shemaiah  and  Abtalion,  Hillel  and  Sham- 
mai.  Shemaiah  and  Abtalion  are  said  to  hav^e 
been  proselytes  and  brothers,  descended  from 
Sennacherib,  King  of  Assyria,  by  an  Israelite 
woman,  and  to  have  perished  in  the  great  slaughter 

M 


178  FOUE  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

of  the  Sanhedrim,  perpetrated  by  Herod  in  revenge 
for  their  severity  towards  him. 

A  great  gap  of  more  than  a  hundred  years  is  found 
between  those  men  of  the  time  of  Herod  and  their 
predecessors  of  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  plainly 
showing:  that  the  line  of  succession  is  a  mere  fabri- 
cation  previous  to  the  time  of  Hillel  and  Shammai. 
Josephus  (Ant.  xiv.  9,  4)  refers  to  two  men,  Pollio 
and  Sammoeas,  whom  some  have  identified  with 
Abtalion  and  Shemaiah,  others  w^ith  Hillel  and 
Shammai.  It  seems  as  thougjh  Abtalion  was  a 
mythical  personage,  and  was  really  identical  with 
Hillel.  At  all  events,  we  can  certify  that  Hillel 
and  Shammai  were  the  two  presidents  of  the 
council  in  the  time  of  Herod.  Hillel  is  said  to 
have  been  descended,  on  his  mother's  side,  from 
King  David,  through  Shephatiah,  the  son  of  Abital, 
David's  wife.  He  was  an  eminently  learned  man, 
and  is  placed  by  the  Rabbis  in  the  chief  place  of 
their  ancient  authority.  For  forty  years  he  was 
president  of  the  Sanhedrim,  and  was  succeeded  by 
his  lineal  descendants  in  the  same  offices,  amongst 
whom  were  Simeon,  who  took  the  infant  Jesus  into 
his  arms  in  the  Temple  and  sung  his  "Nunc 
Dimittis,"  and  Gamaliel,  at  whose  feet  the  Apostle 
Paul  sat,  and  before  whom,  as  President,  the 
apostles  were  summoned  (Acts  v.  34).     "  Gamaliel 


.    THE  JEWISH  SANHEDRIM.  1 79 

the  old  "  he  was  called,  because  lie  survived  to  the 
eighteenth  year  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 
A  descendant  of  Hillel,  Rahhi  Judah  Hakkadosh, 
was  the  author  of  the  Mishna.  Hillel  was  born  in 
Babylonia,  and  resided  there  until  he  was  forty 
years  old,  when  he  removed  to  Jerusalem.  He 
then  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  became  so  eminent  that  at  eighty  years 
of  age  he  was  made  President  of  the  Council, 
living,  it  is  said,  to  the  extreme  old  age  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years.  Some  have  dated  his 
presidency  30  B.C.,  but  this  has  been  probably  in 
order  to  make  it  exactly  one  hundred  years  from 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  The  name  of 
Manahem  occurs  in  Josephus,  as  contemporary 
with  Hillel.  He  is  said  to  have  been  withdrawn 
by  Herod's  influence  into  court  life,  and  been  suc- 
ceeded bv  Shammai,  who  was  a  scholar  of  Hillel. 
The  scholar  soon  became  the  rival  of  the  master. 
The  followers  of  each  disputed  with  those  of  the 
opposite  school.  They  differed  on  many  points, 
and  some  have  maintained  that  their  spirit  was 
diverse,  that  Hillel  was  of  a  mild  and  conciliatory 
disposition,  and  that  Shammai  was  very  prejudiced 
and  violent.  In  order  to  help  their  theory  of 
authority  the  Habbis  have  introduced  the  fiction  of 
a  Divine  voice  from  heaven,  sent  to  give  decision 


180  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

between  the  two  disputants  and  their  followers. 
Dr.  Edersheim,  however,  is  of  opinion  that  in  both 
respects  scholars  have  been  misled.  "It  is  not 
correct,"  he  says,  "  to  describe  Hillel  as  consistently 
the  more  liberal  and  mild.  The  teaching  of  both 
was  supposed  to  have  been  declared  by  the  '  Voice 
from  heaven '  (the  Bath-Kol),  as  *  the  words  of  the 
living  God ; '  yet  the  Law  was  to  be  henceforth 
accordino:  to  the  teachino;  of  Hillel." 

Dr.  Stanley  has  given  an  interesting  account  of 
Hillel,  though  it  rests  only  on  tradition.  "  Like 
Ezra,  to  whom  his  countrymen  often  compared 
him,  Hillel  belonged  to  the  vast  Babylonian  settle- 
ment. Unlike  Ezra,  he  was  not  of  the  priestly 
class  ;  but  like  One  who  was  shortly  to  come  after 
him,  descended  from  the  house  of  David  ;  and,  like 
that  other  One,  a  humble  workman,  drawn  to  Jeru- 
salem only  by  the  thirst  for  '  hearing  and  asking 
questions.'  He  came  with  his  brother  Shebna, 
and  worked  for  the  scanty  remuneration  of  half  a 
denarius,  the  coin  known  in  Latin  as  '  victoriatus,' 
in  Greek  as  'tropdicon,'  from  the  figure  of  the 
goddess  Victory  upon  it.  This  he  divided  between 
the  pay  for  his  lodgings  and  the  j)ay  to  the  door- 
keeper of  the  school  where  Shemaiah  and  Abtalion 
taught.  On  a  certain  occasion,  when  he  had  failed 
in  his  work,  the  churlish  doorkeeper  \vould  not  let 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDEIM.  181 

liim  enter.  It  was  the  eve  of  the  Sabbath,  there 
were  no  lights  stirring,  and  he  took  advantage  of 
the  darkness  to  climb  to  the  window-sill  to  listen. 
It  was  a  winter  night,  and  the  listening  youth  was 
first  benumbed  and  then  buried  three  cubits  deep 
under  a  heavy  snowfall.  As  the  day  dawned, 
Shemaiah  turned  to  his  colleague  and  said,  'Dear 
brother  Abtalion,  why  is  our  school  so  dark  this 
morning  ? '  They  turned  to  the  window  and  found 
it  darkened  by  a  motionless  human  form,  en- 
veloped in  the  snowflakes.  They  brought  him 
down,  bathed,  rubbed  him  with  oil,  placed  him 
before  the  fire — in  short,  broke  for  his  sake  their 
Sabbatical  repose,  saying,  'Surely  he  must  be 
worth  a  violation  of  the  Sabbath  ! '  He  was,  in 
regard  to  the  traditionary  lore,  what  Ezra  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  in  regard  to  the  written  Law. 
He  it  was  who  collected  and  codified  the  floating 
maxims  \Yhich  guided  the  schools"  (iii.  447). 

In  an  interesting  excursus  to  his  "  Life  of 
Christ,"  Archdeacon  Farrar  gives  several  of  the 
Rabbinical  stories  about  Hillel,  which,  however, 
must  be  received  with  the  utmost  caution.  We 
cannot  even  accept  the  general  tone  of  them  as 
indicatiug  the  breadth  or  mildness  of  Hillel  as  a 
teacher,  for  there  can  be  no  doubt  at  all  that  the 
Rabbis  were  greatly  influenced  by  Christian  senti- 


182  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

ments,  being  desirous  of  proving  that  tlieir  great 
Eabbi,  who  preceded  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  was  the 
source  of  all  that  was  good  in  the  Saviour's  doc- 
trine. The  school  of  Hillel  was  the  majority,  and 
Dr.  Edersheim  thinks  that  "generally  only  one  side 
of  his  character  has  been  presented  by  writers,  and 
even  this  in  greatly  exaggerated  language.  His 
much-lauded  gentleness,  peacefulness,  and  charity, 
were  rather  negative  than  positive  qualities.  He 
was  a  philosophic  Rabbi,  whose  real  interest  lay 
in  a  far  other  direction  than  that  of  sympathy  with 
the  people,  and  whose  motto  seemed  indeed  to  im- 
ply, '  We,  the  sages,  are  the  people  of  God  ;  but  this 
people,  who  know  not  the  Law,  are  cursed.'  The 
school  of  Hillel,  which  henceforth  commanded  the 
majority,  were  men  of  no  political  colour,  theo- 
logical theorists,  self-seeking  jurists,  vain  rather 
than  ambitious.  The  two  schools  of  the  Hillelites 
and  the  Shammaites  were  violently  opposed  and 
on  occasion  came  to  blows." 

It  is  diflficult,  says  Dr.  Edersheim,  to  ascertain 
what  occurred,  but  the  Shammaites  had  the  majority 
of  votes,  and  eighteen  decrees  were  passed  in  which 
the  two  schools  agreed,  eighteen  questions  were 
carried  by  a  majority,  and  eighteen  remained  un- 
decided. "  In  general,  the  tendency  of  these 
eighteen    decrees   was   of  a   most  violently  anti- 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDRIM.  183 

Gentile,  intolerant,  and  exclusive  character.  Yet 
such  value  was  attached  to  them,  that  while  any 
other  decree  of  the  sages  might  be  altered  by  a 
more  grave,  learned,  and  authoritative  assembly, 
these  eighteen  decrees  might  not,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, be  modified"  (ii.  14).  "Although  the 
school  of  Hillel  was  supposed  in  general  to  make 
the  yoke  lighter,  and  that  of  Shammai  heavier, 
yet  not  only  did  they  agree  on  many  points,  but 
the  school  of  Hillel  was  not  unfrequently  even 
more  strict  than  that  of  his  rival.  (Twenty-four 
points  are  mentioned.)  In  truth,  their  difi'er- 
ences  seem  often  only  prompted  by  a  spirit  of 
opposition,  so  that  the  serious  business  of  religion 
became  in  their  hands  one  of  rival  authority  and 
mere  wrangling.  (Many,  very  many  of  these  are 
so  utterly  trivial  and  absurd,  that  only  the  hair- 
splitting ingenuity  of  theologians  can  account  for 
them ;  others  so  profane  that  it  is  difficult  to 
understand  how  any  religion  could  co-exist  with 
them  "  (vol.  ii.  p.  407). 

The  remarks  of  Dr.  Stanley  may  be  placed  beside 
these,  and  the  more  favourable  view  which  he  gives 
of  Hillel  will  be  received  the  more  carefully  as  it 
is  seen  to  be  modified  by  that  of  Jewish  scholars. 
"  At  first  sight,  as  we  turn  the  dreary  pages  of 
the  Mishna,  there  seems  to  be  little  to  choose  be- 


184  FOUR  CENTURIES  OP  SILENCE. 

tween  Hillel  and  Shammai.  Their  disputes  turn, 
for  the  most  part,  on  points  so  infinitely  little  that 
the  small  controversies  of  ritual  and  dogma  which 
have  vexed  the  soul  of  Christendom,  seem  great  in 
comparison.  They  are  worth  recording  only  as 
accounting  for  the  obscurity  into  which  they  have 
fallen,  and  also  because  Churches  of  all  ages  and 
creeds  may  be  instructed  by  the  reflection  that 
questions  of  the  mode  of  eating  and  cooking, 
and  walking  and  sitting,  seemed  as  important  to 
the  teachers  of  Israel — on  the  eve  of  their  nation's 
destruction,  and  of  the  greatest  religious  revolution 
that  the  world  has  seen — as  the  questions  of  dress 
or  posture,  or  modes  of  appointment,  or  verbal 
formulas,  have  seemed  to  contending  schools  of 
Christian  theology.  But  in  the  darkness  of  the 
Kabbinical  schools  of  Palestine,  Hillel  was,  as  it 
were,  the  morning  star  of  the  bright  dawn  that  was 
rising  in  the  hills  of  Galilee.  It  has  been  reserved 
for  modern  times  to  recognise  this  extraordinary 
merit.  The  teacher  over  whom  both  Josephus  and 
Eusebius  pass  without  word,  sa\V  further  than  any 
other  man  of  his  generation  into  the  heart  and 
essence  of  religion.  In  him  the  freedom,  the  eleva- 
tion, the  latitude  which  had  breathed  through  the 
poetic  imagery  and  grand  idealism  of  the  psalmists 
and  prophets  in  the  days  of  the  higher  inspirations 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDRIM.  185 

of  Judaism,  now  expressed  themselves  for  the  first 
time  in  the  direct  practical  maxims  of  what  we 
may  call  the  modern  thought  of  the  Herodian,  the 
Augustan  age.  Even  amidst  the  trivial  casuistry 
and  ceremonial  etiquettes  which  furnish  the  mate- 
rials for  the  larger  part  of  Hillel's  decisions,  they 
lean,  not  indeed  invariably,  but  as  a  general  rule, 
to  the  more  liberal  and  spiritual  side,  and  they 
encourage  the  rights  of  the  congregation  and  the 
nation  as  against  the  claims  of  a  grasping  sacer- 
dotal caste.  And  even  when  he  appeared  to  submit, 
he  introduced,  if  he  did  not  create,  a  logical  pro- 
cess by  which,  under  a  peculiar  name  acquired  in 
his  hands  (Prosbol),  he  contrived  to  minimise  the 
stringent  effects,  not  only  of  the  tradition,  but 
of  the  Law  itself.  But  there  are  sayings  which 
tower  not  only  far  above  those  questions  of  tithes, 
anise,  and  cummin,  into  the  weightier  matters  of 
the  Law,  but  above  the  merely  presidential  aphor- 
isms of  the  earlier  Rabbis,  and  which  must  have 
created  around  them  an  atmosphere  not  only  in 
which  tbey  themselves  could  live  and  be  appre- 
ciated, but  which  must  have  rendered  more  possible 
both  the  origination  and  the  acceptance  of  any 
other  sayings  of  a  kindred  nature  in  that  other 
coming  age.  "  Be  gentle  as  Hillel  and  not  harsh 
as  Shammai,"  was  the  proverb  which  marked  the 


186  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

final  estimate  of  the  latitudinariaa  compared  with 
the  rigorist  teacher,  when  the  spirit  of  partisanship 
had  cooled  before  the  calmer  judgment  of  posterity. 
Two  practical  sayings  alone  have  survived  of  the 
sterile  teaching  of  Shammai.  "  Let  thy  repetition 
of  the  law  be  at  a  fixed  hour,"  was  the  hard  and 
fast  line  by  which  his  disciples  were  to  be  bound 
down,  as  by  an  inexorable  necessity,  to  the  punc- 
tual reading  of  the  Sacred  Book,  as  of  a  breviary, 
at  hours  never  to  be  lost  sight  of.  "  Speak  little 
and  do  much,  but  do  what  thou  hast  to  do  with  a 
cheerful  countenance."  That  voice  has  a  touching 
accent,  as  though  he  felt  that  the  frequent  profes- 
sions and  austere  demeanour  which  were  congenial 
to  his  natural  disposition  might  perchance  prove  a 
stumbling-block  to  the  cause  which  was  dear  to 
him.  But  when  from  these  "  scrannel  pipes  "  of 
Shammai  we  turn  to  his  less  popular  but  more 
deeply  beloved  rival,  we  find  ourselves  listening 
to  strains  of  a  far  higher  mood.  "Be  of  Aaron's 
disciples,  who  loved  peace,  pursued  peace,  loved  all 
creatures,  and  attracted  them  towards  the  Law." 
Although  not  a  priest  himself,  and  by  his  position 
thrown  into  antagonism  to  the  order,  he  yet  had 
the  rare  merit  of  seeing  in  an  ancient  institution 
the  better  side  of  its  traditions  and  its  capabilities, 
and  of  commending  it  to  his  countrymen.     "  He 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDRIM.  187 

who  makes  liis  own  name  famous,  and  does  not 
increase  in  wisdom,  shall  perish.  He  who  learns 
nothing  is  as  though  he  has  done  something  worthy 
of  death.  He  who  makes  a  profit  of  the  crowning 
glory  of  a  teacher's  place,  away  with  him  ! "  This 
represents  the  religious  passion  for  mental  improve- 
ment— the  sacred  duty  of  diligence,  which  carries 
within  it  the  stimulus  of  all  modern  science,  the 
true  ideal  of  the  "  scholar."  It  shows  also  the 
Socratic  disinterestedness  in  imparting  knowledge 
transplanted  into  a  sphere  where  it  will  give  birth 
to  one  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  a 
future  apostle.  "If  I  am  not  mine  own,  who  is 
mine  ?  Yet,  if  I  am  mine  own,  what  am  I  ?  And 
if  not  now,  when  ? "  It  is  one  of  those  enis^mas 
in  which,  from  the  time  of  Solomon  downwards, 
the  Jewish  sages  delighted,  yet  full  of  deep  mean- 
ing. It  expresses  the  threefold  mission  placed 
before  the  human  soul — the  call  to  absolute  inde- 
pendence, the  worthlessness  of  selfish  isolation, 
the  necessity  of  immediate  exertion  to  fortify  the 
one  and  to  correct  the  other.  "  Had  Hillel,"  says 
Ewald,  "  left  us  but  this  single  saying,  we  should 
be  for  ever  grateful  to  him,  for  scarce  anything 
can  be  said  more  briefly,  more  profoundly,  or  more 
earnestly."  A  heathen  came  to  Shammai,  and 
begged  to  be  taught  the  whole  Law  while  he  stood 


188  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

on  one  foot.  Shammai,  indignant  at  the  tbong^Tit 
that  the  Law  could  be  taught  so  simply  and  so 
shortly,  drove  him  forth  with  the  staff  which  he 
held  in  his  hand.  The  Gentile  went  to  Hillel,  who 
accepted  him,  and  said,  "  What  thou  wouldst  not 
thyself,  do  not  to  thy  neighbour.  This  is  the 
whole  Law,  and  its  application  is,  Go  and  do  this ! 
Wish  not  to  be  better  than  the  wliole  community, 
nor  be  confident  of  thyself  till  the  day  of  thy  death. 
Think  not  of  anything  that  it  will  not  be  heard,  for 
heard  at  last  it  surely  will  be  ;  think  not  that  thou 
canst  calculate  on  the  time  when  thou  shalt  have 
anything,  for  how  easily  will  it  come  to  pass  that 
thou  shalt  never  have  it  at  all.  The  more  meat 
at  his  banquets  a  man  hath,  so  much  the  more 
is  the  food  for  worms ;  the  more  wealth  he  hath, 
so  much  the  more  care  ;  the  more  wives,  so  much 
the  more  opening  for  superstition  ;  the  more  maid- 
servants, so  much  the  more  temptation  to  license  ; 
the  more  slaves,  so  much  the  more  room  for  plunder. 
But  the  more  of  Law,  so  much  the  more  of  life ; 
the  more  of  schools,  so  much  the  more  of  wisdom ; 
the  more  of  counsel,  so  much  the  more  of  insight ; 
the  more  of  righteousness,  so  much  the  more  of 
peace.  If  a  man  gains  a  good  name  he  gains  it  for 
himself  alone;  if  he  gains  a  knowledge  of  the  Law, 
it  is  for  eternal  life."     These  are  maxims  which  are 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDEIM.  189 

more  than  pliilosopliical,  they  are   almost  Apos- 
tolical. 

Dr.  Stanley  has,  however,  followed  too  implicitly 
the  views  of  Ewald  and  others  of  the  Germans, 
and  it  must  be  remembered  that  much  which  is 
reported  of  Hillel  has  come  to  us  through  the  Eab- 
binical  traditions,  and  cannot  be  received  except 
with  the  greatest  reserve,  especially  as  it  was  the 
deliberate  aim  of  the  post- Christian  Rabbis  to  set 
off  Hillel  in  opposition  to  Jesus,  in  which  they 
have  been  too  much  followed  by  the  rationalistic 
school  of  Germany.  As  Dr.  Farrar  has  observed — 
"  Hillel  was  undoubtedly  a  great  and  good  man, 
and  he  deserved  the  wail  uttered  over  his  grave — 
'  Ab,  the  gentle,  the  holy,  the  scholar  of  Ezra ; ' 
but  to  compare  his  teaching  with  that  of  the 
Saviour  is  absurd.  It  was  legal,  casuistic,  and 
narrow,  while  that  of  Jesus  was  religious,  moral, 
and  human.  Let  any  candid  reader  consult  the 
translation  of  the  Talmudic  treatise  Berachoth,  by 
M.  Schwab,  and  see  the  kind  of  miserably  minute 
questions  of  infinitely  little  matters  of  formalism 
which  occupied  the  mind  and  life  of  Hillel,  and 
calmly  consider  the  mixture  of  scorn  and  pity 
with  which  Jesus  would  have  treated  the  notion 
that  there  was  in  such  questions  any  intrinsic  im- 
portance.    He  will  then  be  able  to  judge  for  him- 


190  FOUR  CENTURIES  OP  SILENCE. 

self  of  the  folly  and  untenability  of  the  statement 
that  Hillel  was  the  true  master  of  Jesus "  ("  Life 
of  Christ,"  vol.  ii.  p.  460). 

At  the  same  time,  making  all  abatement  from 
the  exaggerated  views  of  the  Eabbis,  it  may  be  ad- 
mitted that  there  appeared  in  the  Sanhedrim,  to- 
wards the  end  of  the  period  between  the  last  of  the 
prophets  and  the  advent  of  our  Saviour,  something 
like  a  new  spirit,  a  spirit  of  dissatisfaction  with  the 
dead  legalism  of  the  past  hundred  years,  and  a 
craving  after  a  higher  teaching  and  a  freer  life. 
There  was  no  room  for  such  a  spirit  to  expand 
itself  and  grow  into  a  living  power  in  Judaism 
so  long  as  it  was  confined  within  the  limits  of 
Eabbinical  tradition.  Hence  it  was  that  He  who 
came  to  set  His  people  free,  and  open  the  gate  of 
righteousness  to  the  world,  was  not  a  Kabbi,  did 
not  teach  as  a  so-called  "  Master  in  Israel ; "  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  received  His  appointment  di- 
rectly from  God,  by  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  distinctly  opposed  His  spiritual  doctrine  to 
that  which  had  been  "  said  by  them  of  old  time." 
The  light  which  was  in  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim  was 
turned  into  darkness.  But  the  night  passed  away, 
and  the  True  Light  shone  forth  in  the  "  Teacher 
come  from  God,"  who  did  not  ^'destroy  the  Law" 
by  the  subtleties  of  a  self-righteous  pedantry,  but 


THE  JEWISH  SANHEDRIM.  1.91 

fulfilled  it  by  the  gracious  freedom  and  inexhaus- 
tible sufficiency  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  the  Spirit 
of  Light  and  Love,  cleansing,  purifying,  renewing 
and  saving,  bringing  forth  the  true  Israel  out  of 
the  old,  the  new  Jerusalem,  coming  down  out  of 
heaven  from  God. 


192  rOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 


CHAPTER  X. 

PHILO    OF   ALEXANDRIA. 

TITE  are  now  drawing  near,  in  our  view  of  the 
Jewish  Church,  the  close  of  that  long  period 
which  separates  the  last  of  the  prophets,  Malachi, 
from  the  advent  of  the  Saviour.  We  have  already 
described  the  character  of  that  remarkable  revival 
of  Jewish  sentiment  and  faith  which  was  identified 
with  the  patriotic  efforts  of  the  Maccabees,  and 
which  continued  for  some  time  to  animate  the  re- 
ligious life  of  Palestine.  But  in  proportion  as  tbis 
religious  revival  was  overshadowed  by  political  dis- 
order and  depression,  it  changed  its  character  and 
became  a  narrow  Eabbinism,  which  robbed  Judaism 
more  and  more  of  its  best  features,  and  cut  it  off 
from  intercourse  with  surrounding  nations.  The 
resource  of  despairing  patriots,  in  the  land  of  their 
fathers,  lay  in  the  wild  dreams  of  a  Messianic  reve- 
lation, in  which  it  was  hoped  the  zeal  and  devoted- 
ness  of  the  strictest  Jews  would  be  rewarded,  and 
the  Law  of  Moses,  as  interpreted  by  the  Rabbis, 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  193 

would  be  made  the  Law  of  the  world.  There  had 
grown  up,  however,  during  the  last  two  centuries, 
another  form  of  Jewish  life,  which,  chiefly  through 
the  influence  of  one  remarkable  man,  was  hence- 
forth destined  to  a  great  place  in  the  future  re- 
ligious history  of  the  world.  Alexandria  had  its 
Jewish  nation,  almost  a  nation  to  itself,  in  contrast 
with  that  in  Palestine.  Ever  since  the  Ptolemies 
had  favoured  the  Jews,  and  their  Scriptures  were 
translated  into  Greek,  the  intercourse  between  the 
more  learned  and  wealthy  among  them  and  the 
Gentiles,  witli  whom  they  were  compelled  to  as- 
sociate, had  been  breaking  down  prejudice  and 
enlarjiinnf  their  views.  The  intellectual  life  of 
Alexandria  was  based  upon  the  principle  of  Eclec- 
ticism. The  situation  of  Egypt  was  favourable  to 
the  cultivation  of  a  cosmopolitan  spirit.  East  and 
West  there  came  into  contact,  and  freely  mingled 
together.  The  magnificent  Library  with  its  neigh- 
bouring School  was  the  meeting-place  of  Jew  and 
Gentile,  European  and  Asiatic,  men  of  profound 
thought,  and  men  of  active  business  talent,  and 
the  Jew  could  scarcely  resist  for  long  the  influ- 
ence of  such  an  atmosphere.  He  began  to  philo- 
sophise himself,  as  his  neighbours  did,  although  his 
nation  had  never  encouraged  philosophical  studies  ; 
he  began  to  read  his  Scriptures  with  a  view  to  find 

N 


194  FOUK  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

in  tliem  tlie  decisions  of  Divine  authority  on  the 
questions  which  were  being  agitated  in  the  School. 
The  result  was  the  rise  of  what  was  subsequently 
called  "  Hellenism,"  a  compromise  between  the 
strict  Judaism  of  Palestine  and  the  broader  spirit 
of  Greek  religion  and  philosophy.  It  was  in  no 
sense  a  renuuciation  of  the  claims  which  the 
Jewish  people  preserved  among  them  to  superi- 
ority over  the  world.  It  was  not  a  lowering  of 
Scripture  authority.  But  it  was  an  attempt  to 
accommodate  Judaism  to  the  new  circumstances 
in  which  it  was  placed  in  Egypt,  by  calling  in 
all  tliat  Gentile  philosophy  and  culture  could 
afford  to  uufold  and  develop  the  hidden  trea- 
sures of  the  Old  Testament.  The  chief  represen- 
tative of  this  new  Judaism,  for  such  it  should  be 
called,  was  the  Alexandrian  Philo,  born  probably 
about  20  B.C.,  and  a  man  who,  both  by  his  great 
wealth  and  high  social  position,  and  by  his  extra- 
ordinary intellectual  power,  might  be  regarded 
as  the  leading  Jew  of  that  great  and  flourishing 
Hebrew  colony. 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  works  of  a  much 
earlier  Alexandrian,  Aristohulus.  We  find  that 
the  Jews  of  Palestine  in  their  time  of  distress  and 
danger,  sent  a  letter  to  "  Aristobulus,  master  of 
King  Ptolemy,  and  of  the  stock  of  the  anointed 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  195 

priests "  (2  Mace.  i.  9).  This  Ptolemy  was  Pto- 
lemy VII.,  or  Philometor,  aud  there  was  probably 
a  "  Judas "  who  became  his  instructor  and  was 
named  "  Aristohulus,"  a  man  of  great  learning, 
who,  with  others,  such  as  Demetrius,  Eupolemus, 
Artapanus,  Cleodemus,  Jason,  and  others  like  them, 
laboured  to  bring  Jewish  views  into  closer  union 
with  Greek  thought  and  literature.  Aristobulus 
flourished  about  180  B.C.  His  chief  work  was  en- 
titled "  Exj)lanatio'ns  of  the  Mosaic  Law."  "His 
object,"  says  Ewald,  "  was,  before  the  eyes  of  the 
king  himself,  to  dissipate  certain  prejudices  against 
the  Law.  The  fragments  which  remain  prove  the 
work  to  have  been  the  composition  of  a  refined 
mind ;  and  in  the  treatment  of  such  questions  as 
how  arms,  face,  and  feet  could  be  ascribed  to  God 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  how  the  descent  of  God  on 
to  Sinai  in  fire  and  other  symbols  of  the  same 
nature  were  to  be  understood,  how  God  could  have 
rested  on  the  seventh  day — we  observe,  in  fact, 
the  earliest  and  tenderest  attempt  at  connected 
allegorical  explanation  placed  as  far  as  possible  on 
a  philosophical  basis."  There  were  other  works 
besides  those  of  Aristobulus  which  aimed  at  the 
same  reconciliation  between  Gentile  philosophy  and 
Jewish  relifrion.  But  this  allegorical  method  of 
interpretation  was  not  applied  very  extensively  to 


196  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

the  Old  Testament  until  the  time  of  Philo.  In 
considering,  however,  the  sources  from  which  he 
drew  in  his  writings,  it  is  important  to  keep  before 
us  the  two  Books  of  the  Apocryj^ha,  to  which 
allusion  has  been  already  made,  and  which  cer- 
tainly preceded  Philo  in  time,  the  Book  of  Ecclesi- 
asticus  or  The  Wisdom  of  the  Son  of  Sirach,  and  the 
Book  of  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon — the  former,  per- 
haps, dating  as  early  as  the  time  of  Aristobulus, 
and  the  latter  certainly  composed  before  the  time 
of  Herod,  and  probably  published  eighty  years  be- 
fore the  birth  of  Philo.  We  must  briefly  describe 
the  teaching  of  these  books  as  introductory  to  our 
notice  of  Philo's  doctrine,  as  he  seems  to  have  freely 
used  them. 

In  Ecclesiasticus,  which  was  originally  composed 
in  Hebrew  and  afterwards  translated  into  Greek, 
the  aim  of  the  translator  was  to  adapt  the  work  of 
an  enlightened  and  devout  Jew  of  a  former  period 
to  the  people  of  Alexandria,  to  commend  to  them 
Jewish  doctrine  and  practical  maxims.  It  is  not 
an  attempt  to  harmonise  Greek  thought  and  Jewish 
theology,  for  it  is  thoroughly  Jewish  throughout, 
but  rather  to  select  that  which  was  best  in  the 
Old  Testament  and  commend  it  to  the  attention 
of  the  Gentiles.  It  begins  with  proverbs,  wise 
sayings,  full  of  practical  sagacity,  and  applying  to 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  197 

the  whole  extent  of  human  life.  These  are  fol- 
lowed by  a  higher  strain,  in  which  wisdom  is  re- 
garded as  not  a  mere  regulation  of  common  life, 
but  as  a  Divine  gift  for  all  nations.  *'  We  possess 
in  this  work,"  says  Ewald,  "  the  finest  composition 
in  continuation  of  the  Psalms  which  the  Apocry- 
phal books  contain.  The  whole  style  is  more  ar- 
tistic ;  single  maxims  are  often  extremely  pointed  ; 
the  language  is  full  of  images  and  flowers,  and 
while  the  writer  seeks  to  describe  with  great  detail 
the  whole  compass  of  morality,  he  depicts  certain 
special  moral  relations  with  peculiar  ease  (as  in  the 
proverbs  about  slaves,  Ecclus.  xxxiii.  24-31)." 
The  conclusion,  in  which  the  heroic  men  of  Israel 
are  celebrated,  and  which  is  highly  poetical,  is 
full  of  intense  national  feeling,  and  yet,  at  the 
same  time,  is  intended  to  attract  the  Greek  world 
by  its  spirit  of  hero-worship.  There  is  also,  in 
chapter  xliii.,  a  very  beautiful  description  of  the 
glory  of  the  natural  world,  and  an  invitation  to  see 
God  in  it  and  above  it.  "AVhen  ye  glorify  the 
Lord,  exalt  Him  as  much  as  ye  can ;  for  even  yet 
will  He  far  exceed ;  and  when  ye  exalt  Him,  put 
forth  all  your  strength  and  be  not  weary ;  for  ye 
can  never  go  far  enough.  Who  hath  seen  Him 
that  he  might  teU  us  ?  and  who  can  magnify  Him 
as  He  is  ?     There  are  yet  hid  greater  things  than 


198  FOUE  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

these  be,  for  we  have  seen  but  a  few  of  His  works. 
For  the  Lord  hath  made  all  things,  and  to  tbe 
godly  hath  He  given  wisdom "  (vers.  30-33). 
But  the  portion  of  this  interesting  work  to  which 
Philo  Avould  be  most  indebted,  is  the  twenty-fourth 
chapter  in  praise  of  wisdom.  Here  we  plainly  per- 
ceive a  recollection  of  the  lanf^uaofe  of  the  Book  of 

o       o 

Proverbs,  but,  at  the  same  time,  the  personification 
of  wisdom  is  carried  out  with  more  detail,  and 
here  and  there  are  traces  of  an  Alexandrian  style 
of  thought.  "  I  came  out  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Most  Higli,  and  covered  the  earth  as  a  cloud.  I 
dwell  in  high  places,  and  my  throne  is  in  a  cloudy 
pillar.  I  alone  compassed  the  circuit  of  heaven, 
and  walked  in  the  bottom  of  the  deep.  In  the 
waves  of  the  sea,  and  in  all  the  earth,  and  in  every 
people  and  nation  I  got  a  possession.  With  all 
these  I  sought  not :  and  in  whose  inheritance  shall 
I  abide  ? "  The  answer  to  this  question  plainly 
declares  that  the  True  Wisdom  is  laid  up  in  Zion, 
but  all  are  invited  to  receive  it.  "  I  will  yet  make 
doctrine  to  shine  as  the  morning,  and  will  send  her 
light  afar  off.  I  will  yet  pour  out  doctrine  as  pro- 
phecy, and  leave  it  to  all  ages  for  ever.  Behold 
that  I  have  not  laboured  for  myself  only,  but  for 
all  them  that  seek  wisdom  "  (vers.  32-34).  There 
is  no  compromise  of  Judaism  in   this  book,  but 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  ■      199 

there  is  an  evident  desire  to  call  in  the  world  to  a 
participation  in  Divine  blessings. 

The  Wisdom  of  Solomon  is  a  much  more  philo- 
sophical book  than  Ecclesiasticus ;  it  is  regarded 
by  some  as  proceeding  directly  from  the  Alexan- 
drian School,  and  as  "the  most  beautiful  and  im- 
portant of  all  the  Hellenistic  productions."  The 
author  has  "steeped  his  mind,"  says  Ewald,  "in 
the  principal  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
there  recognised  the  eternal  foundations  of  all  true 
religion  with  such  living  power  that  he  beheld 
none  but  these  pure  and  ever- quickening  truths  in 
all  their  brightness,  and  before  this  great  light  all 
its  lower  and  imperfect  elements  vanished  away. 
He  had  in  the  same  way  saturated  himself  with 
Greek  culture,  and  nurtured  his  spirit  with  many 
thoughts  and  principles  of  the  higher  Greek  philo- 
sophy, particularly  the  Platonic."  The  idea  of  the 
book  is  that  the  wise  king,  Solomon,  is  addressing 
the  powers  and  princes  of  the  world,  and  the 
searchers  after  wisdom,  and  he  is  instructing  them 
in  the  "Way  of  Life.  The  first  six  chapters  are  an 
address  to  the  judges  of  the  earth,  an  appeal  to 
them  to  find  true  wisdom  in  the  teaching  of  the 
Divine  Spirit :  "  For  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  filleth 
the  world ;  and  that  which  containeth  all  things 
hath  knowledge  of  the  voice"  (i.  7).      The  great 


200  FOUR  CENTUHIES  OF  SILENCE. 

principle  wliich  is  set  forth  is  the  eternity  of  man  : 
"  For  God  created  man  to  he  immortal,  and  made 
him  to  be  an  image  of  His  own  Eternity  J*  "The 
souls  of  the  righteous  are  in  the  hand  of  God." 
"  Wisdom  is  glorious,  and  never  fadeth  away  :  yea, 
she  is  easily  seen  of  them  that  love  her,  and  found 
of  such  as  seek  her."  *'  Love  is  the  keeping  of  her 
laws."  "  The  desire  of  wisdom  briugeth  to  a 
kingdom."  "If  your  delight  be  then  in  thrones 
and  sceptres,  0  ye  kings  of  the  people,  honour 
wisdom  that  ye  may  reign  for  evermore."  Then 
follows  a  discourse  on  Wisdom  itself,  "  What  she 
is,  and  how  she  came  up."  Taking  the  history  of 
Solomon  as  an  example  of  success  in  seeking  wis- 
dom, the  writer  insists  on  the  power  of  prayer,  and 
the  direct  inspiration  of  the  Spirit.  There  is 
much  in  the  description  of  wisdom  which  reminds 
us  of  the  lano;uao;e  of  the  Schools  :  "  If  a  man  love 
rishteousness,  her  labours  are  virtues :  for  she 
teacheth  temperance  and  prudence,  justice  and 
fortitude ;  which  are  such  things  as  man  can  have 
nothing  more  profitable  in  this  life."  "By  means 
of  her  I  shall  obtain  immortality,  and  leave  behind 
me  an  everlasting  memorial  to  them  that  come 
after  me."  The  ninth  chapter  is  a  sublime  prayer, 
which  Solomon  is  supposed  to  have  uttered,  and 
whereby  he  obtained  wisdom.     Then  we  have  the 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  201 

memorable  instances  of  the  great  and  good  in 
former  ages,  all  inspired  of  God.  Adam,  Noah, 
Abraham,  Lot,  Jacob,  Joseph,  Moses,  the  Israelites. 
Speaking  of  the  sparing  mercy  of  God  towards 
mankind,  we  find  a  philosophical  idea,  which  was 
common  at  that  time,  introduced,  the  pervading 
influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  all  men.  "For 
thine  incorruptible  Spirit  is  in  all  things."  Ee- 
ference  is  made  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  to  the 
perverse  philosophies  of  the  heathen,  how  they 
"deemed  either  fire,  or  wind,  or  the  swift  air,  or 
the  circle  of  the  stars,  or  the  violent  waters,  or  the 
lights  of  heaven,  to  be  the  gods  which  govern 
the  world."  "  But  yet  for  this  they  are  the  less 
to  be  blamed,  for  they  perad venture  err,  seek- 
ing God,  and  desirous  to  find  Him.  For,  being 
conversant  in  His  works,  they  search  Him  dili- 
gently, and  believe  their  sight,  because  the  thiugs 
are  beautiful  that  are  seeu."  In  the  fourteentli 
chapter  we  meet  with  that  doctrine  of  the  Word 
of  God  which  was  afterwards  so  fully  wrought 
out  by  Philo:  "Thy  Word,  0  Lord,  healeth  all 
things."  "  The  Word  preserveth  them  that  put 
their  trust  in  Thee."  It  is  the  "  Almighty  Word  " 
which  "  leaped  down  from  heaven  out  of  Thy  royal 
throne  as  a  fierce  man  of  war,  iuto  the  midst  of 
a  land  of  destruction,"  and  punished  the  Egyptians 


202  FOUR  CEXTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

and  all  idolaters.  The  book  is,  undoubtedly,  full 
of  Messianic  expectation,  and  it  has  been  observed, 
by  Ewald,  that  it  is  **  so  far  before  all  the  other 
Hellenistic  productions,  so  abounding  in  words  aiid 
thoughts  which  remind  us  strikingly  of  the  New 
Testament,  that  it  bas  even  been  attempted  to 
detect  a  Christian  in  its  author.  He  is,  however, 
no  other  than  a  highly  inspired  Jew ;  and  in  no 
single  case  can  it  be  proved  that  he  derived  any 
one  of  his  words  or  thoughts  from  Christianity. 
Of  the  Law  he  says  little,  as  he  is  engaged  in 
deeper  contemplations ;  and  he  rises  far  above  the 
narrow-heartedness  and  hypocrisy  of  the  Pharisees 
into  shining  heights;  yet  it  is  clear  that,  in  his 
view,  there  is  nothing  holy  but  the  contents  of  the 
Law."  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  work  may 
have  been  by  Philo  himself,  but  the  style  is  not 
that  of  Philo,  and  the  entire  absence  throughout 
the  book  of  the  allegorical  method,  and  the  simple 
practical  directness  of  the  appeals  to  the  heathen 
to  accept  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  are 
decided  proofs  that  it  proceeded  from  some  other 
liand.  It  was  from  the  Messianic  impulse  that  it 
came.  It  is  the  opinion  of  Ewald  that  on  that 
account  it  cannot  be  dated  much  more  than  a 
generation  before  Philo,  but,  at  all  events,  it  is 
quite  possible  that  at  the  time  when  he  would  be 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  203 

writing,  tliafc  is  twenty  or  thirty  years  after  tlie 
birth  of  Christ,  the  book  would  be  regarded  as 
comparatively  old,  some  seventy  or  eighty  years 
having  passed  away  since  it  was  given  to  the  world, 
or  even  more.  There  seems  a  large  concurrence 
of  opinion  that  it  dates  about  one  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  but  the  date  of  its  publication  re- 
mains an  open  question.  We  are  now  prepared  to 
look  more  closely  into  the  teaching  of  Philo  him- 
self, many  of  whose  remarkable  writings  have  been 
preserved  to  us. 

Very  little  is  known  of  the  history  of  Philo. 
He  was  an  Alexandrian  by  birth,  and  probably 
belonged  to  a  priestly  family.  The  only  fact  by 
which  we  are  able  to  learn  anything  of  his  position 
in  his  native  city  is  the  embassy  to  the  Roman 
Emperor,  Caligula,  in  which  Philo  took  the  chief 
part,  and  which  arrived  in  Eome  in  the  winter  of 
39  A.D.,  lasting  until  the  spring  of  the  following 
year.  Philo  was  then,  as  he  tells  us,  an  old  man, 
being  sixty  years  of  age.  The  main  object  of  the 
embassy  was  to  procure  the  revocation  of  the  Im- 
perial decree  requiring  divine  honours  to  be  paid 
to  the  statue  of  the  Emperor.  The  statue  of  Cali- 
gula was  ordered  to  be  set  up  in  the  Temple  at 
Jerusalem,  and  would  have  been  placed  there  had 
not  the  mad  Emperor  been  called  away  by  death 


204  rOUH  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

in  41  A.D.  The  writings  of  Philo  which  remain 
to  us  are  very  various,  but  chiefly  take  the  form 
of  commentaries  on  the  Pentateuch.  The  subjects 
are  those  which  are  suggested  by  the  Scriptures. 
The  Doctrine  of  Creation,  the  meaning  of  the 
Levitical  Law,  the  Cherubim,  the  sacrifices  of 
Cain  and  Abel,  the  division  of  the  human  family 
into  the  good  and  the  bad,  the  giants,  the  un- 
changeableness  of  God,  the  incidents  in  the  life  of 
Noah,  drunkenness,  the  Confusion  of  Languages, 
the  Migration  of  Abraham,  the  Wise  Man  as 
typified  in  Abraham,  the  Statesman  as  typified  in 
Joseph,  Moses,  his  office  and  his  institutions,  the 
Monarchy,  Special  Laws  of  the  Jews,  the  Sacred 
Festivals,  Justice  and  Magistrates.  These  are 
some  of  the  subjects  which  Pliilo  finds  in  the 
Pentateuch,  and  on  which  he  treats.  Then  there 
are  other  miscellaneous  writings  and  fragments 
from  various  sources,  some  of  which  are  of  very 
doubtful  authenticity.  The  Doctrine  of  the  Con- 
templative Life,  the  Ljcorruptibility  of  the  World, 
and  two  very  interesting  works,  that  Against  Flac- 
cus,  giving  an  account  of  the  persecutions  to  which 
the  Jews  were  subject,  and  that  on  The  Virtues 
and  on  the  office  of  Ambassadors,  addressed  to 
Caius,  giving  an  account  of  the  embassy  to  Eome , 
of  which  Phdo  formed  part. 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  205 

It  will  not  be  possible,  in  our  brief  space,  to 
describe  all  these  writings.  There  is  a  great  deal 
of  repetition  and  verbiage  in  them,  which,  to  our 
modern  ideas,  render  them  tedious  and  almost  un- 
readable, but  they  are  of  great  value  as  indicating 
the  method  and  spirit  of  the  School  of  which  Philo 
was  the  greatest  representative.  The  first  thing 
that  strikes  us  in  these  works  is  the  intimacy 
displayed  in  them  with  Greek  philosophy  and 
literature.  They  are  full  of  allusions  to  the  poets 
of  Greece,  and  the  phraseology  employed  is  fre- 
quently that  of  the  philosophical  systems.  The 
names  of  sixty-four  different  Greek  writers  occur 
in  Philo's  pages.  It  is  evident  that  he  had  studied 
the  works  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  that  he  knew 
familiarly  the  later  systems  of  Greek  philosophy. 
But  at  the  same  time,  Philo  does  not  write  as  an 
advocate  of  any  of  these  systems.  His  object  is 
not  to  adduce  Scripture  for  their  support.  The 
underlying  principle  in  all  his  comments  on  the 
Old  Testament  is  that  of  a  universal  truth  com- 
municated to  men  in  every  age  and  every  nation, 
in  greater  or  less  degree,  but  pre-eminently  revealed 
in  the  books  of  Moses.  It  is  very  evident  that  he 
reads  into  the  words  of  the  Pentateuch  the  ideas 
which  he  has  derived  from  the  speculations  of 
heathen  philosophers,  with  the  intention  of  show- 


206  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

ing  that  whatever  truth  lias  been  discovered  was 
given  by  God  to  His  ancient  people,  the  Jews,  and 
is  laid  up  in  their  Scriptures.  As  an  example  of 
this  we  may  quote  the  following  words  from  his 
commentary  on  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 
Having  referred  to  the  foundation  of  great  cities 
and  states,  in  the  imagiDation  of  a  ruler,  he  says, 
"We  must  form  a  somewhat  similar  opinion  of 
God,  who,  having  determined  to  found  a  mighty 
state,  first  of  all  conceived  its  form  in  his  mind, 
according  to  which  form  he  made  a  world  per- 
ceptible only  by  the  intellect,  and  then  completed 
one  visible  to  the  external  senses,  usiug  the  first 
oue  as  a  model"  (chap,  iv.)  This,  of  course,  is 
Platonism  applied  to  the  interpretation  of  Genesis, 
and  the  treatise  from  which  it  is  taken  is  full  of 
the  same  kind  of  thought.  His  use  of  the  term 
V0V9 — intellect,  as  the  central  part  of  the  soul,  as  he 
calls  it,  the  soul  of  the  soul,  is  thoroughly  Platonic. 
"  Let  no  one  think  that  he  is  able  to  judgo  of  the 
likeness  of  man  to  God  from  the  characters  of  the 
body ;  for  neither  is  God  a  being  with  the  form  of 
a  man,  nor  is  the  human  body  like  the  form  of 
God ;  but  the  resemblance  is  spoken  of  with  refer- 
ence to  the  most  important  part  of  the  soul, 
namely,  the  mind  (vov^) ;  for  the  mind  which  exists 
in  each  individual  has  been  created  after  the  like- 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  207 

ness  of  that  one  Mind  which  is  in  the  universe  as 
its  primitive  model,  being  in  some  sort  the  God  of 
that  body  which  carries  it  about  and  bears  its  image 
within  it"  (chap,  xxiii.)  Like  all  the  philosophic 
writers  of  that  time,  Philo  laboured  hard  to  be  rid 
of  what  he  and  others  dreaded  so  much — anthropo- 
morphism. It  seemed  to  him  that  all  human  speech 
with  respect  to  the  Divine  nature  hides  it  from  the 
intellect,  and  that  it  is  the  work  of  the  philosopher 
to  penetrate  through  the  veil  of  language,  and  dis- 
cover that  which  is  beyond  it,  the  absolute  truth 
of  the  Divine.  It  must  be  remembered  that  Philo 
had  the  Greek  Bible  in  his  hands,  and  in  that  there 
is  a  very  evident  tendency  to  soften  down  the  old 
Hebraic  methods  of  speech  into  harmony  with  Greek 
modes  of  thought.  It  was  this  philosophical  spirit 
which  lay  at  the  foundation  of  the  allegorical  treat- 
ment of  the  Old  Testament,  which,  while  it  can 
be  traced  much  earlier  than  Philo,  was  certainly 
wrought  out  most  fully  by  him.  There  must  be  a 
meaning  beyond  and  behind  the  letter  of  Scripture. 
"  The  letter  of  the  text  must  be  held  fast ;  and 
biblical  personages  and  historians  were  real.  But 
only  narrow-minded  slaves  of  the  letter  would  stop 
here ;  the  more  so,  as  sometimes  the  literal  mean- 
ing alone  would  be  tame,  even  absurd ;  while  the 
allegorical  interpretation  gave  the  true  sense,  even 


208  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

tliough  it  might  run  counter  to  the  letter.  Thus, 
the  patriarchs  represented  states  of  the  soul ;  and 
whatever  the  letter  might  bear,  Joseph  represented 
one  given  to  the  fleslily,  whom  his  brothers  rightly 
hated ;  Simeon,  the  soul,  aiming  after  the  higher ; 
the  killing  of  the  Egyptian  by  Moses^  the  subjuga- 
tion of  passion,  and  so  on  "  (Edersheim).  It  is  for 
the  purpose  of  discipline,  and  for  the  sake  of  those 
who  are  of  a  lower  order  of  mind,  that  these  an- 
thropomorphic representations  are  employed.  And 
the  duty  of  those  who  seek  after  truth  is  to  lay 
aside  that  which,  is  only  due  to  the  evil  of  man's 
heart,  and  retain  that  which  may  be  discovered 
under  the  literal  meaning.  If  there  is  anything 
unworthy  of  Deity  recorded,  that  must  be  put 
aside.  Sometimes  special  and  profound  meanings 
are  indicated  by  the  modification  of  words  and  by 
minute  particles,  and  changes  which  seem,  at  first 
sight,  meaningless.  Philo,  like  many  others  of  the 
later  Jews,  believed  in  the  Divine  authority  of  the 
Septuagint ;  he  therefore  Lays  stress  on  the  Greek 
meanings  of  words,  and  ventures,  at  times,  on 
changes  in  the  letters,  in  order  to  bring  out  the 
sisnificance  desired.  It  will  be  evident  that  such 
a  method  is  most  dangerous  when  applied  to  the 
Word  of  God.  It  became  so  to  the  Christian 
Church,  in  subsequent  ages,  and  the  Alexandrian 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  209 

School,  which  may  be  said  to  have  built  itself  up 
to  a  great  extent  on  the  writings  of  Philo,  prepared 
the  way  for  much  of  the  corrupt  teaching  of  the 
Middle  Acres.     The  Gnostic  errors  of  the  Church 

O 

may  have  been  derived  from  Persian  sources 
originally,  but  the  mingling  of  Eastern  theosophy 
with  Christian  teaching  found  very  great  assist- 
ance in  the  Alexandrian  method,  which  Philo  may 
be  said  to  have  given  to  the  second  century. 

With  respect  to  the  particular  views  which  may 
be  found  in  Philo's  writings,  it  is  only  right  to 
acknowledge  that,  side  by  side  with  that  which  is 
false  and  injurious,  there  are  occasionally  passages 
of  great  beauty  and  great  elevation  of  moral  feel- 
ing, showing  that  the  general  sentiment  which 
possessed  the  mind  of  this  philosophical  Jew  was 
one  of  reverence  for  the  Word  of  God  and  for  the 
comparatively  pure  standard  which  is  put  before  us 
in  the  Law  of  Moses.  He  seems  to  be  a  kind  of 
Eclectic  in  his  doctrine  of  the  Divine  nature — God 
is  to  be  distinguished  from  the  material  world ; 
He  is  without  qualities  and  unchangeable;  He 
is  infinitely  above  man,  and  therefore  cannot  be 
defined  in  any  terms  of  human  life  or  expression. 
But  then,  again,  he  seems  to  believe  in  a  doctrine 
of  Immanence,  foUowinor  the  teachino;  of  the  Stoics. 

He  is  One  and  All.     The  world  is  the  realm  of 

o 


210  rOUPw  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

God.  When  lie  comes  to  explain  how  this  Divine 
Person  has  wrought  out  the  world,  he  very  plainly 
teaches  the  Gnostic  doctrine  of  demons  or  lower 
powers  and  rulers  of  the  material  world.  Speaking 
of  the  words  used  in  Genesis  i.  26,  "Let  us  make 
man,"  he  says  they  show  that  God  "  assumed  other 
beings  to  Himself  as  assistants,  in  order  that,  as 
the  Governor  of  all  things,  He  might  have  all  the 
blameless  intentions  and  actions  of  man,  when  he 
does  right,  attributed  to  Him  ;  and  that  His  other 
assistants  might  bear  the  imputation  of  his  contrary 
actions ;  for  it  was  fitting  that  the  Father  should, 
in  the  eyes  of  His  children,  be  free  from  all  imputa- 
tion of  evil  and  vice  and  energy  in  accordance  with 
sin  and  evil "  (xxiv.) 

There  are  two  points,  however,  which  must  be 
touched  upon  in  this  notice  of  Philo  before  we  pass 
away  from  him.  He  may  have  derived  some  of  his 
notions  from  Rabbinical  sources.  His  doctrine  of 
the  Logos  certainly  has  more  affinity  to  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Rabbis  than  to  that  of  the  Apostle 
John,  who  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  borrowed 
from  him.  Both  these  points  have  been  dwelt 
upon  at  some  length  by  Dr.  Edersheim.  "  There 
is  an  analogy,"  he  says,  "between  his  teaching 
and  that  of  Jewish  Mysticism,  as  ultimately  fully 
developed  in   the   'Kabbalah.'      The    very    term 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  211 

Kahhalah  (from  Kahal,  to  hand  down)  seems  to 
point  out  not  only  its  crescent  by  oral  tradition, 
but  also  its  ascent  to  ancient  sources.  Its  ex- 
istence is  presupposed  and  its  leading  ideas  are 
sketched  in  the  Mishnah.  The  Targums  also  bear 
at  least  one  remarkable  trace  of  it.  May  it  not  be 
that  as  Philo  frequently  refers  to  ancient  traditions, 
so  both  Eastern  and  Western  Judaism  may  here 
have  drawn  from  one  and  the  same  source — we  will 
not  venture  to  suggest  how  high  up — while  each 
made  use  of  it  as  suited  their  distinctive  wants  ? 
Neither  Eastern  mystical  Judaism  nor  the  philo- 
sophy of  Philo  could  admit  of  any  direct  contact 
between  God  and  creation.  The  Kabbalah  solved 
the  difficulty  by  their  Sephiroth  or  emanations  from 
God,  through  which  the  contact  was  ultimately 
brought  about,  and  of  which  the  En-soph,  or 
crown,  was  the  spring,  the  source  from  which  the 
infinite  light  issued.  If  Philo  found  greater  diffi- 
culties, he  had  also  more  ready  help  from  the 
philosophical  system  to  hand.     His  Sephiroth  were 

*  Potencies '  (Swdfieii),  *  words '  (Xoyoi),  intermediate 
powers  ; — '  Potencies,'  we  imagine,  when  viewed 
Godward ;  '  words,'  as  used  creationwards.  They 
were   not   emanations,   but,   according    to    Plato, 

*  archetypal  ideas,'  on  the  model  of  which  aU  that 
exists  was  formed ;  and  also,  according  to  the  Stoic 


212  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

idea,  the  cause  of  all,  pervading  all,  forming  all, 
and  sustaining  all.  Then  these  Potencies  were 
wholly  in  God,  and  yet  wholly  out  of  God.  If  we 
divest  all  this  of  its  philosophical  colouring,  did 
not  Eastern  Judaism  also  teach  that  there  was  a 
distinction  between  the  Unapproachable  God  and 
God  Manifest  ? "  A  connection  between  the  two 
doctrines  may  also  be  traced  in  the  view  given  of 
the  moral  character  of  God.  He  is.  Elohim,  the 
God  of  justice,  and  Jehovah,  the  God  of  mercy, 
according  to  the  Jewish  teachers.  "  Philo  places, 
next  to  the  Divine  Word,  goodness  as  the  creative 
potency,  and  poiver  as  the  ruling  potency.  He 
saw  these  two  potencies  in  the  two  cherubims,  and 
in  the  two  angels  which  accompanied  the  Divine 
"Word  when  on  His  way  to  destroy  the  cities  of  the 
plain."  He  enumerates  other  potencies,  but  the 
great  point  is  that  he  regards  them  as  intermediate 
between  the  Divine  Essence  and  the  world,  media 
through  which  revelation  was  made. 

Philo's  doctrine  of  the  Logos  is  a  mixture  of 
philosophical  and  scriptural  ideas.  "  In  Talmudi- 
cal  writings  we  find  mention  not  only  of  the  Shem 
or  'Name,'  but  also  of  the  *  Shechinah,'  God  as 
manifest  and  present,  which  is  sometimes  also 
presented  as  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  in  the  Targums 
we  meet  with    yet    another    expression,    which. 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  213 

strange  to  say,  never  occurs  in  the  Talmud.  It  is 
that  of  the  Memra,  Logos,  or  *  Word.'  Not  that 
the  term  is  exclusively  applied  to  the  Divine 
Logos.  But  it  stands  out  as  perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  fact  in  this  literature  that  God — not 
as  in  His  permanent  manifestation  or  manifest 
Presence,  but  as  revealing  Himself — is  designated 
Memra.  Altogether,  that  term,  as  applied  to  God, 
occurs  in  the  Targum  Onkelos  179  times,  in  the 
so-called  Jerusalem  Targum  99  times,  and  in  the 
Targum  Pseudo- Jonathan  321  times.  A  critical 
analysis  shows  that  in  82  instances  in  Onkelos, 
in  71  instances  in  the  Jerusalem  Targum,  and  in 
213  instances  in  the  Targum  Pseudo  -  Jonathan, 
the  designation  Memra  is  not  only  distinguished 
from  God,  but  evidently  refers  to  God  as  re- 
vealing Himself  But  what  does  this  imply  ? 
The  distinction  between  God  and  the  Memra 
of  Jehovah  appears  in  many  passages.  Equally 
the  Memra  of  Jehovah  is  distinguished  from  the 
Shechinah.  Nor  is  it  used  instead  of  the  word 
Jehovah,  nor  for  the  well-known  Old  Testament 
expression  *the  angel  of  the  Lord,'  nor  yet  for 
the  Metatron  of  the  Targum  Pseudo-Jonathan  and 
of  the  Talmud.  Does  it  then  represent  an  old 
tradition  underlying  all  these  ?  Beyond  this, 
Rabbinical  theology  has  not  preserved  to  us  any 


214  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

doctriue  of  personal  distinction  in  the  Godhead. 
And  yet,  if  words  have  any  meaning,  the  Memra 
is  a  hypostasis,  though  the  distinction  of  permanent, 
personal  subsistence  is  not  marked.  Nor  yet,  to 
complete  this  subject,  is  the  Memra  identified 
with  the  Messiah.  In  the  Targum  Onkelos  dis- 
tinct mention  is  twice  made  of  this,  while  in  the 
other  Targums  no  fewer  than  seventy-one  biblical 
passages  are  rendered  with  explicit  reference  to 
Him  "  (Edersheim,  vol.  i.  pp.  47,  48).  The  Logos 
of  Philo,  while  it  may  be  founded  upon  these 
ancient  Jewish  ideas,  is  yet  a  less  definite  and  more 
philosophical  conception.  It  seems  to  be  a  com- 
bination of  the  Memra  of  Onkelos  with  the  Idea 
of  Plato.  It  is  the  archetypal  Man,  the  image  of 
God,  upon  which  man  was  made.  Philo,  no  doubt, 
endeavoured  to  find  the  "idea"  of  the  Platonic 
philosophy  in  Scripture,  and  the  Greek  Logos  was 
ready  to  his  hand.  The  Logos  separates  the  world 
from  God,  and  yet  unites  them  as  intermediate. 
There  is,  in  Philo's  language,  some  degree  of  re- 
semblance to  that  of  St.  John,  but  it  is  only 
partial.  The  Logos  is  interpreter  and  prophet, 
mediator,  high  priest,  taking  away  the  sins  of  man, 
and  by  His  intercession  procuring  for  us  the  mercy 
of  God.  He  is  even  called  the  Paraclete,  the  Sun, 
the  Manna  of  the  soul,  the  Indwelling  AVord,  the 


PHILO  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  215 

Melcliizedek,  King  of  Righteousness  and  Kiug  of 
Peace.  But  this  Logos  imparts  itself  to  the  true 
and  the  good,  not  to  the  sinful.  He  is  not  a 
person,  but  rather  reason  personified.  The  mind 
of  the  philosopher  is  evidently  struggling  with 
thoughts  which  are  too  great  for  him.  He  is  not 
yet  delivered  from  the  pride  of  intellect  which  led  so 
many  of  the  ancient  thinkers  into  error.  There  is  no 
compassion  for  the  ignorant  and  for  them  that  are 
out  of  the  way  in  such  a  doctrine ;  it  is  a  doctrine 
for  the  elect  souls,  i.e.,  for  the  wise  men  apart  from 
the  multitude.  But  such  gropings  after  truth,  so 
close  upon  the  time  of  our  Saviour's  Advent,  are 
exceedingly  instructive.  The  .horizon  of  the  Jewish 
Church  was  brighter  in  the  West  than  in  the  East. 
Such  men  as  Philo  were  witnesses  for  God.  They 
testified  at  once  to  the  vast  superiority  of  the 
Mosaic  revelation  to  the  confused  thinkings  of  the 
heathen,  and  to  the  hope  which  was  treasured  up 
in  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  destined  to  appear  in  a 
new  light,  again  rising  in  the  Eastern  sky — the 
dawn  of  an  eternal  day. 


21 6  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE    DAWNING    LIGHT. 

TI7E  have  already  described  the  growth  of  the 
Messianic  expectation  and  the  very  extra- 
ordinary development  of  it  in  the  last  century 
before  Christ.  Our  review  of  the  history  has 
brought  us  very  near  to  the  time  when  the  pro- 
mised revelation  should  be  made — when  the  great 
Deliverer  should  come,  who  should  fulfil  the  desire 
of  the  Jewish  people  and  confirm  the  covenant 
made  to  the  fathers.  It  has  been  remarked  in 
a  former  place  that  there  were  great  difierences 
among  those  who  entertained  the  same  expecta- 
tion of  a  personal  advent.  "  Some  were  mere 
political  zealots  and  dreamers,  others  were  deeply 
religious  students  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  Israel- 
ites indeed,  like  Nathanael."  It  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  keep  in  mind  this  distinction  as  we 
approach  the  time  of  our  Lord.  The  question 
naturally  suggests  itself  to  the  outsider,  why  was 
Jesus  Christ  rejected,  if  the  people  were  full  of  the 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  217 

anticipation  tliat  tlieir  Messiah  would  appear  ?  The 
answer  is  a  very  simple  and  sujficient  one.  Under 
the  influence  of  Rabbinical  teaching,  the  bulk  of 
the  nation  was  blinded  to  the  true  conception 
of  the  promised  deliverance.  They  allowed  the 
political  circumstances  of  the  times,  which  were 
depressing  to  their  national  pride,  to  obscure,  not 
to  say  obliterate,  the  true  spiritual  elements  of 
the  Old  Testament  prediction.  No  doubt  even 
the  Eabbis  expected  a  great  Teacher  and  religious 
Reformer.  But  they  indulged  in  most  exagge- 
rated language  with  respect  to  the  Messiah's 
triumph  over  His  enemies  and  the  splendour  of 
His  kingdom,  without  recoffnisino^  the  true  con- 
nection  of  such  hopes  with  the  principles  of  Divine 
revelation.  They  were  very  partial  and  preju- 
diced in  their  study  of  the  Old  Testament.  The 
cross  of  Christ  was  a  stumbling-block  to  them, 
simply  because  they  would  not  see  it  in  the 
prophetic  writings  which  they  acknowledged  — 
because  they  could  not,  in  their  spiritual  blind- 
ness, reconcile  it  with  the  prospect  which  they 
dwelt  upon  of  victory  and  worldly  glory. 

But  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that 
there  were  no  exceptions  to  this  wide-spread  per- 
version of  the  Jewish  mind.  The  synagogues 
were    under   the    influence   of  the  Rabbis.      The 


218  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

Eabbis  no  doubt  were  chiefly  guided  by  the  tradi- 
tional views  which  were  enforced  upon  them  by 
their  leaders.  The  tone  of  the  Sanhedrim  at  Jeru- 
salem would  be  given  to  all  the  synagogues,  more 
or  less,  throughout  the  laud.  But  times  of  great 
national  sulfering  and  depression  generally  favour 
independence  of  thought  and  individuality  of  cha- 
racter. The  religious  life  of  the  people  is  called 
out  into  more  practical  expression.  "They  that 
fear  the  Lord  speak  often  one  to  another."  The 
humbler  worshippers  in  the  sanctuary  have  their 
minds  awakened  to  attend  to  the  signs  of  the 
times.  The  Scriptures  are  the  ready  resort  of  such 
inquirers.  They  have  no  opportunity  of  mingling 
with  the  great  and  learned.  In  their  own  homes 
and  in  the  privacy  of  their  own  chambers  they 
are  asking  the  question,  "  0  Lord,  how  long ! 
When  shall  the  salvation  of  Israel  come  out  of 
Zion  ? "  It  will  be  well  to  give  a  closer  attention 
to  those  few,  but  by  no  means  insignificant,  indi- 
cations which  we  find  in  the  opening  pages  of  the 
Gospel  narrative  of  the  existence  among  the  people 
of  Palestine,  immediately  previous  to  the  birth  of 
our  Lord,  of  a  devout  and  simple-minded  study  of 
the  ancient  predictions  and  an  expectation  founded 
upon  it,  not  of  mere  political  change  and  external 
splendour,  but   of  that  which  in  the   best  sense 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  219 

would  be  ^^the  consolation^'  of  the  true  Israel, 
their  rising  to  their  Divine  vocation,  and  becomino- 
the  Light  of  the  world. 

Our  first  glance  at  the  religious  condition  of 
Palestine  must  be  directed  to  the  capital,  the 
centre  of  the  national  life.  There  we  find,  in  the 
midst  of  a  seething  mass  of  political  and  ecclesi- 
astical strife,  a  small  group  of  watching  and  wait- 
ing souls,  upon  whom  the  first  rays  of  the  new 
day  fell  with  wonderful  quickening  power,  as  upon 
a  true  germ  of  a  new  birth,  a  "remnant  according 
to  the  election  of  grace,"  the  initial  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  which  was  soon  to  be  proclaimed  as  "at 
hand."  There  was,  as  has  been  pointed  out  by 
Dr.  Edersheim  and  others,  a  strange  mixture  of 
two  worlds  in  Jerusalem.  It  was  not  only  a  Greek 
and  Hebrew  world  which  there  came  together,  the 
influence  of  Gentile  thought  and  Jewish  tradi- 
tionalism, but  "  piety  and  fidelity  also."  "  The 
devotion  of  the  people  and  the  liberality  of  the 
rich  were  unbounded.  Fortunes  were  lavished  on 
the  support  of  Jewish  learning,  the  promotion  of 
piety,  or  the  advance  of  the  national  cause.  Thou- 
sands of  their  ofi'erings  and  the  costly  gifts  in  the 
Temple  bore  evidence  of  this.  If  piiestly  avarice 
had  artificially  raised  the  price  of  sacrificial  animals, 
a  rich  man  could  bring  into  the  Temple  at  his  own 


220  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

cost  the  number  requisite  for  the  poor.  Charity 
was  not  only  open-handed,  but  most  delicate,  and 
one  who  had  been  in  good  circumstances  would  be 
actually  enabled  to  live  according  to  his  former 
condition."  Painful  evidence  comes  to  us  of  the 
luxuriousness  at  Jerusalem  at  that  time,  and  of 
the  moral  corruption  to  which  it  led.  But,  not- 
withstanding that  ritualism  was  at  its  height  and 
morality  in  a  very  low  state  among  the  people, 
there  is  very  interesting  evidence  in  the  sacred 
narrative  of  a  real  and  vigorous  spiritual  life 
among  select  souls.  Scarcely  suflScient  attention 
has  been  paid  by  students  of  Scripture  to  the 
remarkable  fact  that  there  was  a  prophetess  resid- 
ing in  some  precinct  of  the  Temple,  who  was  not 
only  revered  because  of  her  great  age  and  Nazarite- 
like  devotion,  but  who  would  seem  to  have  been 
specially  inspired  and  gifted  with  prophetic  insight 
and  speech.  "  There  was  one  Anna,  a  prophetess, 
the  daughter  of  Phanuel,  of  the  tribe  of  Aser:  she 
was  of  a  great  age,  and  had  lived  with  an  husband 
seven  years  from  her  virginity.  And  she  was  a 
widow  of  about  fourscore  years  and  four,  which 
departed  not  from  the  Temple,  but  served  God  with 
fastings  and  prayers  night  and  day."  She  must 
have  been  at  least  a  hundred  and  six  years  old. 
It   is  certain,  therefore,  that  she  would   be  well 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  221 

acquainted  with  tlie  popular  expectations  with 
respect  to  tlie  coming  of  the  Messiah.  She  pro- 
bably devoted  herself  to  a  life  of  prayer  and 
religious  vigils  with  the  feeling  of  special  prepa- 
ration for  the  coming  manifestation.  Her  life  was 
one  of  singular  and  most  lofty  self-consecration. 
It  is  not  likely  that  one  so  distinguished  would 
have  remained  altogether  silent  for  so  many  years. 
Her  designation  of  prophetess  points  to  her  having 
been  visited  by  the  Spirit,  and  having  spoken  to 
the  people,  perhaps,  on  many  occasions.  This  is 
rendered  the  more  probable  from  the  fact  that 
when  she  recognised,  under  inspiration,  the  birth 
of  the  Messiah,  she  immediately  resumed  her  pro- 
phetic office,  though  at  so  advanced  an  age,  and 
not  only  lifted  up  her  voice  in  a  prophetic  strain 
of  praise  and  thanksgiving,  but  ''spoke  of  Him  to 
all  those  that  looked  for  redemption  in  Jei^salem." 
How  large  was  her  audience  we  cannot  say,  but  it 
must  have  been  more  than  those  who  were  gathered 
in  the  Temple  at  the  time  of  the  Saviour's  presen- 
tation. The  fact  that  she  could  speak  to  ''all  those 
who  looked  for  redemption"  that  her  voice  would 
be  heard  by  many,  is  full  of  significance.  There 
was  a  band  of  faithful  souls  in  the  midst  of  that 
corrupt  population.  Another  reading,  which  has 
been  followed  in  the  Revised  Version,  leaves  it  an 


222  FOUE  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

open  question  whether  the  address  of  Anna  was 
delivered  to  more  than  those  in  the  Temple.  "  She 
spoke  of  Him  to  all  them  that  were  looking  for  the 
redemption  of  Jerusalem."  But  yet  another  read- 
ing: would  substitute  ^^ Israel"  for  *' Jerusalem." 
So  that  any  way  the  reference  may  be  taken  as 
capable  of  a  wide  interpretation.  Such  a  pro- 
phetess would  not  be  likely  to  limit  her  address 
to  a  single  occasion.  The  very  name  Anna  is 
suggestive.  The  mother  of  Samuel  was  herself  an 
inspired  woman,  and  heralded  with  her  prophetic 
word  the  dawn  of  a  very  bright  period  in  the  re- 
ligious history  of  the  population.  After  the  long 
silence  of  hundreds  of  years,  it  was  a  striking  fact 
that  the  lips  of  the  aged  widow  should  be  opened. 
The  people  of  Jerusalem  must  have  been  startled, 
and  led  to  think  that  wonderful  times  were  near. 

Side  by  side  with  Anna  the  Prophetess  stands 
the  venerable  Simeon.  He  is  introduced,  not  as  a 
prophet,  but  as  one  of  the  "  devout"  who  at  any 
time  might  be  inspired  to  communicate  a  Divine 
message.  There  are  other  instances  in  Scripture  in 
which  prophetic  words  have  come  forth  suddenly 
from  those  who  were  not  trained  and  recognised 
as  prophets.  "  Behold,  there  was  a  man  in  Jeru- 
salem whose  name  was  Simeon,  and  the  same  man 
was  just  and  devout,  waiting  for  the  consolation  of 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  223 

Israel,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  luas  upon  him.  And  it 
was  revealed  to  him  hy  the  Holy  Ghost  that  he 
should  not  see  death  before  he  had  seen  the  Lord's 
Christ ;  and  he  came  hy  the  Spirit  into  the  Temple, 
and  when  the  parents  brought  in  the  child  Jesus  to 
do  for  Him  after  the  custom  of  the  Law,  then  tooJc 
he  Him  up  in  his  arm^,  and  blessed  God,  and  said, 
Lord,  now  lettest  Thou  Thy  servant  depart  in  peace, 
according  to  Thy  word,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  Thy 
salvation,  which  Thou  hast  prepared  before  the  face 
of  all  people ;  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,  and 
the  glory  of  Thy p)eople  Israel"  (Luke  ii.  25-32). 
Here  there  are  several  points  which,  are  remarkable. 
Simeon  not  only  waited  for  consolation,  but  he  waited 
for  a  person  in  whom  that  consolation  would  be 
ministered.  He  was  not  only  under  the  influence  of 
a  pervading  expectation,  but  he  had  a  special  revela- 
tion sent  to  him  by  which  the  prospect  was  brought 
within  the  scope  of  his  own  life.  Under  the  direct, 
supernatural  guidance  of  the  Spirit  he  went  into 
the  Temple,  and  the  familiar  sight  of  parents  pre- 
senting their  child  before  the  Lord  was  imme- 
diately lifted  up  in  his  mind  into  the  sphere  of  ful- 
filled prophecy,  so  that  he  could  see  the  Divine 
Deliverer  in  a  sleeping  infant.  Then  another  im- 
portant feature  of  that  interesting  crisis  was  the 
spiritual,  elevated  utterances  of  this  Old  Testament 


224  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

saint,  standing,  as  it  were,  on  the  meeting-point  of 
tlie  two  economies,  departing  in  peace  with  the 
sight  of  the  rising  Sun,  but  under  the  inspiration 
of  the  moment  foretelling  the  character  of  the  com- 
ing day.  The  salvation  which  is  now  already  on 
the  horizon  is  "  before  the  face  of  all  people  "  (/caret 
TTposcoTTov  TravTdov  Twv  \awv).  It  is  "  a  light  to  lighten 
the  Gentiles^'  ((fy^s  etV  airoKaXvy^iv  eOi/cov),  ''and  the 
glory  of  Thy  people  Israel."  And  to  Mary,  Simeon 
spake,  wrapping  up  an  inspired  prediction  in  his 
fatherly  blessing  on  the  parents  and  their  Child. 
"  Behold  this  child  is  set  (Keirai)  for  the  fall  and 
rising  again  of  many  in  Israel ;  and  for  a  sign 
tvhich  shall  he  spoken  against  {yea,  a  svjord  shall 
pierce  through  thy  own  soul  also),  that  the  thoughts 
of  many  hearts  may  he  revealed^  It  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  find  a  shorter  summary  of  the  leading 
characteristics  of  Messiah's  kingdom  than  in  this 
swanlike  song  of  the  dying  Simeon.  The  univer- 
sality of  the  Gospel  is  there.  The  cross  is  there. 
The  Divine  judgments  coming  into  Israel  with  the 
Great  Day  of  the  Lord  which  had  now  dawned. 
The  brightness  of  the  new  kingdom  casting  out  all 
the  darkness  of  human  error  and  the  clouds  of 
ignorance  and  doubt.  The  glorious  new  Israel 
coming  forth  in  this  Child,  whose  personality  shall 
be  the  starting-point  of  the  regenerated  race.   They 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  225 

were  all,  if  not  distinctly  visible,  yet  dimly  re- 
vealed to  the  prophetic  vision  of  this  saint.  His 
voice  was  an  anticipation  of  the  voice  from  heaven 
which  subsequently  testified  to  the  Beloved  Son  in 
whom  the  Father  was  well  pleased.  Now  if  such  a 
man  as  Simeon  was  to  be  found  in  Jerusalem  at  the 
time  of  our  Saviour's  birth,  and  for  years  before,  we 
cannot  doubt  that  there  was  much  of  prayerful, 
devout,  and  even  inspired  thought  and  utterance 
among  the  religious  people  of  the  capital.  No 
doubt  the  revelations  of  the  Spirit  came  to  those 
who  were  highest  in  their  religious  life,  least  under 
the  influence  of  the  deadening  ritualism  and  tradi- 
tionalism of  the  time ;  but  the  account  which  the 
Evangelist  gives  us  of  Simeon  and  Anna  does  not 
exclude  the  supposition  that  they  were  surrounded 
by  a  number  of  kindred  spirits,  who  were  waiting 
with  them  for  the  first  streaks  of  light  on  the 
horizon,  that  they  might  hail  them  with  thanks- 
giving and  praise.  To  such  an  ecclesia,  in  the 
midst  of  the  moral  wilderness  of  Jerusalem,  mes- 
sages of  grace  were  sent  from  time  to  time,  and 
faith  was  thus  maintained. 

But  we  must  now  look  away  from  the  central 
point  of  Judaism,  and  attend  to  other  instances  of 
the  same  Divine  work  of  preparation  among  the 
Jewish  people — instances  which  prove  to  us  that  it 


226  FOUK  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

was  work  spread  over  tlie  whole  land  from  north  to 
south.  The  hill  country  of  Judea  was  separated 
from  Jerusalem  by  no  great  distance,  but  it  was 
distinguished  from  it  by  the  broad  difference  of 
peasant  life  from  that  of  a  metropolis,  and  the 
simplicity  of  a  secluded  pastoral  country  from  a 
city  peculiarly  exposed  to  excitements,  both  political 
and  ecclesiastical.  Zacharias  and  Elizabeth  were 
very  different  from  such  priests  and  their  wives,  as 
would  often  be  seen  in  Jerusalem.  The  Eabbis  and 
the  learned  priests  of  the  great  city  would  look 
down  on  such  a  man.  He  would  be  regarded  as  a 
rustic  priest,  and  by  some  treated  even  with  con- 
tempt. But  what  kind  of  piety  was  at  that  time 
not  uncommon  in  these  rural  districts,  we  can  see 
from  the  study  of  tbat  devout  couple,  "  hoih  righte- 
ous before  God,  and  walking  blameless  in  all  the 
commandments  and  ordinances  of  the  Lord."  The 
shepherds  of  the  neighbourhood  of  Bethlehem  "  keep- 
ing watch  over  their  flocks  by  night"  to  whom  the 
angelic  appearance  came,  and  upon  whom  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  descended,  shining  round  about  them, 
must  have  been  pious  watchers  for  the  signs  of  the 
coming  Redeemer,  or  they  would  not  have  received 
the  heavenly  announcement,  neither  would  they 
have  gone  at  once  to  see  the  great  sight  in  Bethle- 
hem.    They  became  the  first  preachers  of  the  glad 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  227 

tidings,  and  were  doubtless  filled  with  tlie  influence 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  they  might  fulfil  aright 
such  a  mission.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  when  we 
are  thinking  of  these  rural  districts  of  Palestine, 
that  the  synagogue  worship,  which,  since  the  time 
of  Ezra,  had  spread  through  the  land,  was  a  great 
help  to  the  religious  life  of  the  people  ;  and  we  can 
easily  understand  that  when  the  Temple,  with  its 
magnificent  ritual,  w^as  out  of  reach,  the  study  of 
the  Scriptures  and  the  simple  explanations  of  the 
synagogue  could  feed  the  minds  of  those  whose 
hearts  were  open  to  Divine  grace.  So  that  there 
would  be  many  scattered  through  the  country  who 
were  like  Zacharias  and  Elizabeth,  and  Joseph  and 
Mary,  and  the  shepherds — ready  to  follow  the  lead- 
ing of  the  Spirit.  It  is  said  that  in  Jerusalem  itself 
there  were  as  many  as  four  hundred  and  eighty 
synagogues,  and  there  would  be  one  in  every  com- 
munity where  there  were  ten  families  gathered 
together.  Speaking  of  the  general  difi'usion  of 
religious  influences  in  Palestine,  Dean  Stanley 
says,  "Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  detect 
the  popular  sentiment  of  a  nation  apart  from 
its  higher  culture  and  its  public  events.  Yet  in 
this  case  it  is  not  impossible.  For  the  first  time 
we  are  now  entering  on  a  period  when  '  the  people 
of  the   land,'  the  peasants  of  Palestine,  found  a 


228  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

voice  in  the  literature  and  took  a  part  in  the 
struggles  of  the  nation.  In  the  provincial  towns 
the  system  of  schools  had  kept  alive  the  knowledge 
of  the  sacred  books,  though  often  of  another  class 
than  those  studied  in  the  capital.  The  parables 
and  riddles  with  which,  even  in  the  grave  colleges, 
the  teachers  were  wont  to  startle  their  drowsy 
hearers  into  attention,  were  yet  more  congenial 
amongst  the  rural  villagers.  Instead  of  the  tedious 
controversies  of  legal  ministry  which  agitated  the 
theologians  at  Jerusalem,  the  Prophets,  with  their 
bright  predictions,  were  studied  or  read  in  the 
synagogues.  Instead  of  the  Halacha,  or  the 
authoritative  rule  for  legal  action,  the  rustic  or 
provincial  teachers  threw  themselves  on  the  Hag- 
gadha,  the  'legendary'  or  the  poetical  branch  of 
the  Scriptures.  The  Talmudieal  writers  never 
mention  the  Haggadists — the  Haggadists  rarely 
mention  the  Talmudists  ;  but  not  the  less  truly 
did  they  exist  side  by  side."  The  inspiration  which 
was  poured  out  on  such  simple-minded  people 
would  correspond  with  their  accustomed  thoughts. 
1'hey  were  familiar  with  the  Psalms  and  the  Pro- 
phets, and  the  utterances  which  came  forth  from 
their  lips  were  steeped  in  the  very  spirit  of  the  Old 
Testament  psalmody  and  prophecy.  Dr.  Eder- 
sheim  has  shown  that  the  hymn  of  Zacharias  closely 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  229 

corresponds  ^Yitll  ancient  Jewish  prayers,  but  those 
prayers  were  derived  from  the  prophets.  "This 
analogy  between  the  hymn  of  Zacharias  and  the 
prayers  of  Israel  will  best  appear  from  the  bene- 
diction with  which  these  eulogies  closed.  For, 
when  thus  examined,  their  leadiuo;  thouo^hts  will  be 
found  to  be  as  follows  : — God  as  the  shield  of  Abra- 
ham ;  He  that  raises  the  dead,  and  causes  salvation 
to  shoot  forth ;  the  Holy  One ;  who  graciously 
giveth  knowledge ;  who  taketh  pleasure  in  repent- 
ance ;  who  multiplieth  forgiveness  ;  who  redeemeth 
Israel ;  who  healeth  their  (spiritual)  diseases ;  who 
hlesseth  the  years;  who  gather eth  the  outcasts  of 
His  people;  who  loveth  righteousness  and  judg- 
ment ;  who  is  the  abode  and  stay  of  the  righteous ; 
who  buildeth  Jerusalem ;  who  causeth  the  Horn  of 
Salvation  to  shoot  forth  ;  who  heareth  prayer ;  who 
bnngeth  bach  the  Shechinah  to  Zion;  God  the 
gracious  One,  to  w^iom  praise  is  due ;  who  blesseth 
His  people  Israel  with  peace''  (voh  i.  p.  159).  The 
pious  priest  was  familiar  with  such  language,  and 
it  only  needed  that  his  mind  should  be  lifted  up 
by  Divine  communications  and  by  the  miraculous 
events  which  had  occurred,  that  he  should  pour 
forth  his  hymn  of  praise  full  of  the  feeling  of  a 
great  time,  when  that  which  was  "spoken  by  the 
mouth  of  the  holy  prophets  "  should  come  to  pass, 


230  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

the  "promised  mercy"  sliould  he  performed,  ''the 
holy  covenant"  remembered,  "the  oath"  divinely 
kept.  The  vision  was  before  the  mind  of  the  in- 
spired man,  the  herald  preparing  the  way  of  the 
Lord,  "the  dayspring  from  on  high  giving  light  to 
them  that  sit  in  darkness  and  in  the  shadow  of 
death,  and  guiding  the  feet  of  the  true  Israel  into 
the  way  of  peace." 

We  have  referred  to  the  reliirious  life  of  the  hill 
country  of  Judea,  twenty  miles  from  Jerusalem. 
Galilee,  in  the  north,  was  more  remote  from  the 
central  point  of  Jewish  life,  and  its  people  were 
different  in  physical  and  mental  characteristics 
from  the  people  of  the  south ;  but  when  we  think 
of  Nazareth  we  can  have  no  hesitation  in  believing 
that  in  Galilee  also  there  were  elect  souls,  chosen 
vessels,  into  which  the  gracious  influences  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  were  poured,  not  by  means  outside 
the  channels  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  through 
them  by  their  sanctified  use.  It  would  be  a  great 
mistake  to  represent  Nazareth  as  entirely  cut  off 
from  intercourse  with  Jerusalem,  as  a  mere  secluded 
country  town  where  rustic  ignorance  shut  up  its 
inhabitants  within  a  narrow  circle  of  ideas,  and  the 
constraints  of  poverty  and  toil  "  froze  the  genial 
currents  of  their  souls."  It  was  not  so — Nazareth 
was  on  the  highway  of  commerce,  and  it  was  the 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  231 

meeting-place  of  priests  on  their  road  to  the  Tem- 
ple. "Men  of  all  nations  busy  with  another  life 
than  that  of  Israel,  would  appear  in  the  streets  of 
Nazareth ;  and  through  them  thoughts,  associations, 
and  hopes  connected  with  the  great  outside  world 
would  be  stirred.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  Naza- 
reth was  also  one  of  the  great  cities  of  Jewish 
Temple  life.  The  priesthood  was  divided  into 
twenty-four  courses,  which  in  turn  ministered  in 
the  Temple.  The  priests  of  the  course  which  was 
to  be  on  duty  always  gathered  in  certain  towns, 
whence  they  went  up  in  company  to  Jerusalem, 
while  those  of  their  number  who  were  unable  to 
go  spent  the  week  in  fasting  and  prayer.  Now 
Nazareth  was  one  of  those  priest  -  centres,  and 
although  it  may  well  have  been  that  comparatively 
few  in  distant  Galilee  conformed  to  the  priestly 
regulations,  some  must  have  assembled  there  in 
preparation  for  the  sacred  functions,  or  appeared 
in  its  synagogue.  Even  the  fact,  so  well  known 
to  all,  of  the  living  connection  between  Nazareth 
and  the  Temple,  must  have  wakened  peculiar  feel- 
ings" (Edersheim). 

In  addition  to  these  associations  with  the  world 
and  with  the  Temple,  which  would  be  felt  more  or 
less  by  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  little  town,  the 
Davidic  descent,  the  consciousness  of  a  fleshly  bond 


232  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

with  the  favoured  family,  acted  powerfully  no  doubt 
upon  the  feelings  of  that  group  of  pious  people,  who 
there  waited  fur  the  consolation  of  Israel.  Both 
Joseph  and  Mary  were  directly  descended  from 
David,  and  nearly  related  to  one  another.  No 
historical  details  have  come  down  to  us  with 
respect  to  the  early  life  of  the  Virgin.  But  we 
cannot  require  them.  When  she  first  appears  in 
the  sacred  narrative,  she  appears  as  one  full  of 
theocratic  feeling,  highly  favoured,  in  a  state  of 
deep  spiritual  recipiency.  "  The  handmaid  of  the 
Lord."  She  is  not  only  pious  in  the  sense  of  obe- 
dience to  the  Divine  commands,  and  observant  of 
religious  ordinances,  but  she  is  in  a  very  elevated 
state  of  mind,  thinking  much  of  the  Messiah  and 
His  kingdom,  possibly  thinking  of  herself  as  one 
who,  being  in  the  line  of  David,  might  be  chosen 
of  the  Lord  to  be  His  anointed  priestess. 

It  has  been  observed  by  Dr.  Lange  that  "  such 
hearts  as  w^ere  to  be  capable  of  welcoming  and 
receiving  the  highest  revelation  of  grace  in  its 
bodily  manifestation,  had  to  be  prepared  not 
merely  by  the  bestowal  of  noble  dispositions,  but 
by  their  development — not  merely  in  the  School 
of  Israelite  doctrine,  but  of  Israelite  experience. 
They  had  to  be  thoroughly  unhappy  in  the  truest 
aeuse,  to  be  brought  to  despair  of  the  goodness  of 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  233 

the  old  exterior  world,  and  to  experience,  in  the 
annihilation  of  their  former  ideals,  the  judgment  of 
God  upon  its  sinfulness,  in  which  they  also  saw  its 
misery  and  sadness.  Thus  only  could  they  have 
given  up  those  false  notions  of  a  Messiah  which 
were  the  ruin  of  their  nation ;  thus  alone  have 
known  the  happiness  of  receiving,  with  a  poverty 
of  spirit  deep  in  their  knowledge  of  the  world,  the 
Prince  of  the  Heavenly  Kingdom,  who  was  to 
change  judgment  into  salvation,  and  to  build  up 
a  new  world  on  the  ruins  of  the  old."  We  must 
suppose  Mary  to  have  passed  through  such  an 
experience.  There  may  have  been  something  in 
her  personal  circumstances,  in  her  connection  with 
Joseph,  that  quickened  the  work  of  Divine  grace 
in  maturing  her  soul  for  the  higher  revelations 
which  were  to  be  vouchsafed  her.  It  may  be,  as 
Dr.  Lange  has  suggested,  that  Joseph  did  not 
understand  her  in  her  deepest  experiences — "  She 
was  unceasingly  feeling  the  sad  condition  of  the 
House  of  David  and  of  Israel,  which  was  so  secretly 
forming  into  a  judgment  ujjon  the  inner  life  of  the 
solitary  heart.  But,  like  a  true  daughter  of  Israel, 
she  anointed  her  face ;  from  the  burnt  sacrifice  in 
which  she  ofi'ered  up  her  first  dreams  of  life  and  (f 
the  world,  to  the  great  I?raelite  duty  of  legal  obedi- 
ence, she  came  forth  as  the  virgin,  in  whom  the 


234  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

Dew  world  was  to  have  its  beginning,  tlie  promise 
of  the  Eedeemer  to  work  with  the  Divine  creative 
power,  in  whose  womb  the  Gospel  was  to  assume 
flesh  and  blood."  It  is  exceedingly  interesting,  in 
illustration  of  this  view — that  Mary  was  especially 
prepared  by  the  Spirit  of  God  for  the  revelations 
to  be  made  to  her — to  study  her  Magnificat  m  the 
light  of  the  Old  Testament.  She  made  haste, 
when  the  annunciation  of  the  angel  Gabriel  was 
made  to  her,  to  visit  her  kinswoman,  in  the  hill 
country  of  Judea.  The  two  women  stood  in  each 
other's  presence  as  mutual  witnesses  to  the  truth 
of  the  Divine  Word,  beaming  in  each  other's  eyes 
with  the  light  of  the  celestial  world.  It  has  been 
well  said  of  the  sacred  music  which  burst  forth  in 
that  house  of  Zacharias,  "  It  was  the  antiphonal 
morning  -  psalmody  of  the  Messianic  Day  as  it 
broke,  of  which  the  words  were  still  all  of  the  Ohl 
Dispensation,  but  their  music  of  the  New ;  the 
keynote  being  that  of  '  favour/  '  grace,'  struck  by 
the  Angel  in  his  first  salutation ;  '  favour '  to  the 
virgin ;  '  favour,'  eternal  *  favour '  to  all  His  humble 
and  poor  ones;  and  'favour'  to  Israel,  stretching 
in  golden  line  from  the  calling  of  Abraham  to  the 
glorious  future  that  now  opened.  Not  one  of  these 
fundamental  ideas  but  lay  chiefly  within  the  range 
of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  yet  all  of  them  now  lay 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  235 

beyond  it,  rather  in  the  golden  light  of  the  new- 
day  "  (Edersheim).  Referring  to  the  Magnificat,  it 
has  been  often  remarked  that  it  was  founded  upon 
Hannah's  song  of  praise  and  thauksgiviug,  which 
we  find  in  i  Sam.  ii.  i-io.  Possibly,  therefore,  it 
had  been  the  growth  of  many  days  of  meditation 
and  prayer  and  study  of  the  Scriptures  under  the 
influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  It  may  have  been 
an  immediate  inspiration,  or  composed  during  the 
three  mouths  of  Mary's  residence  with  Elizabeth. 
However  we  regard  it,  it  is  certain  that  it  is  de- 
rived from  the  Old  Testament,  aud  breathes  the 
very  spirit  of  Old  Testament  piety.  No  one  can 
doubt  that  the  Psalms  and  the  prophets,  together 
with  the  Pentateuch,  were  all  familiar  to  Mary's 
mind.  Even  the  personal  reference  is  borrowed. 
^^  From  henceforth  all  generations  shall  call  me 
hlessedy  This  was  little  more  than  an  application 
to  herself  of  the  ancient  words  of  Leah  (Gen.  xxx. 
12,)'  "And  Leah  said,  Happy  (blessed)  am  I,  for 
the  daughters  will  call  me  blessed  "  (cf.  Prov.  xxxi. 
28;  Matt.  iii.  12;  James  v.  11),  together  with  a 
remembrance  of  the  angel's  words,  ''Blessed  art 
thou  among  women,"  ''Hail,  highly  favoured!" 
And  yet,  at  the  same  time,  Mary's  Magnificat  is 
truly  from  herself,  it  is  thoroughly  original.  The 
circumstances  in  Hannah's  case  and  her  own  were 


236  FOUR  CE.NTUPJES  OF  SILENCE. 

somewhat  similar.  It  was  "  the  lot  of  the  poor, 
the  despised,  the  oppressed,"  as  it  has  been  well 
said  by  Lange,  "  that  she  experienced,  and  especi- 
ally of  those  rejected  ones  who  bear  in  their  hearts 
the  nobility  of  a  higher  vocation,  of  deeper  reflec- 
tion, and  greater  devotedness  of  life.  She  went, 
during  her  journey  from  Nazareth  to  Judea,  to  visit 
Elizabeth,  who  looked  upon  herself  as  a  princess  of 
such  rejected  ones.  The  greeting  of  her  friend  and 
relative  gave  to  her  a  higher  assurance.  She  now 
sees  the  whole  world  glitter  in  the  sunshine  of  that 
grace  which  raises  the  rejected  ;  that  realm  of  glory 
to  which  God  elects  the  humble  and  lowly  was  now 
displayed  before  her  eyes.  She  had  a  presentiment 
of  tlie  Good  Friday  and  Easter  Day  of  her  Son." 

Truly  this  was  the  dawning  Light.  The  King- 
dom was  already  sketched  in  outline  by  the  hand 
of  this  lowly  woman.  "  The  strength  ivhich  scat- 
tereth  the  proud,  putteth  down  the  mighty  from 
their  seats,  is  the  strength  which  is  mercy  to  them 
that  fear  Him  from  generation  to  generation ; 
exalting  those  of  low  degree,  filing  the  hungry  ivith 
good  things,  helping  His  servant  Israel  in  remem- 
hratice  of  His  mercy,  as  He  spake  unto  our  fathers, 
to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed  for  ever."  Much  as 
we  deprecate  the  superstitious  use  which  has  been 
made  of  the  name  of  the  Virgin,  it  is  impossible  to 


THE  DAWNING  LIGHT.  237 

contemplate  such  a  piety  as  hers,  coming  fortli  out 
of  tbe  Old  Testament,  and  not  acknowledge  that  so 
fair  a  flower  was  worthy  of  the  soil  in  which  it 
grew.  No  human  art  can  ever  do  justice  to  it. 
By  looking  closely  at  that  lovely  blossom  out  of 
the  Dispensation  which  was  passing  away,  we  are 
prepared  to  hail  tbe  advent  of  Him  who  gathered 
up  all  the  past  into  Himself,  who  at  once  satisfied 
the  yearuing  which  the  ages  of  revelation  had  left 
behind  them  in  the  heart  of  man,  and  opened  a 
new  Kingdom,  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven  to  all  be- 
lievers. The  light  first  came  upon  the  horizon  in 
the  varied  colours  and  broken  lines  of  personal  and 
individual  character,  scattered  all  along  the  land  of 
Palestine  from  Jerusalem  and  the  hill  country  to 
the  south  of  it,  to  Galilee  and  tlie  romantic  neigh- 
bourhood of  its  beautiful  sea,  but  when  thirty  years 
had  gone  by  tbe  morning  twilight  had  grown  into 
the  manifest  beginning  of  the  Day.  We  shall  com- 
plete this  review  of  the  interval  between  the  last 
of  the  prophets  and  the  ministry  of  our  Lord  by  a 
short  study  of  that  prophetic  messenger  whose  ap- 
pearance in  the  wilderness  awakened  the  whole 
land  of  Israel  to  the  rising  of  the  Sun  of  Right- 
eousness in  the  heavens. 


238  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS. 

npHE  state  of  the  Jewish  Church  at  the  time  of 
our  Lord's  birth  was  not  that  of  complete  in- 
difference to  the  horizon  which  was  before  it.  We 
have  seen  that  there  were  watchers  on  the  heights 
of  faith,  who  looked  forth  prayerfully  and  with 
eager  gaze  for  the  first  indications  of  the  "  dawning 
Light."  There  was  a  scattered  seed  through  the 
land,  which  promised  a  renewed  spiritual  life,  when 
the  time  to  pour  out  the  blessing  came  and  the 
believers  should  be  multiplied.  Although  the 
smaU  band  of  humble  people  connected  with  Naz- 
areth and  the  hill  country  of  Judea,  may  have 
drawn  to  themselves  others  who,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  wonderful  facts  connected  with  the 
birth  of  Jesus  and  John,  were  quickened  into  lively 
expectation — yet  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  during  the  thirty  years  which  intervened  be- 
tween the  nativity  and  the  public  appearance  of  our 
Saviour,  there  was  anythiug  which  could  be  called 


THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.  239 

a  widespread  "  stirring  among  the  dry  bones."  Tlie 
condition  of  Palestine,  social,  political,  religious, 
grew  worse  during  that  generation,  instead  of 
better.  The  Roman  sway  under  Tiberius  was 
much  more  oppressive  than  under  Augustus.  "  The 
first  procurator  whom  Tiberius  appointed  over 
Judea,  changed  the  occupancy  of  the  high  priest- 
hood four  times,  till  he  found  in  Caiaphas  a  suffi- 
ciently submissive  instrument  of  Roman  tyranny. 
The  exactions,  and  the  reckless  disregard  of  all 
Jewish  feelings  and  interests,  might  have  been 
characterised  as  meeting  the  extreme  limit,  if  worse 
had  not  followed  when  Pontius  Pilate  succeeded  to 
the  procuratorship.  Venality,  violence,  robbery, 
persecutions,  wanton,  malicious  insults,  judicial 
murders,  without  even  the  formality  of  a  legal  pro- 
cess, and  cruelty — such  are  the  charges  brought 
against  his  administration.  If  former  governors 
had,  to  some  extent,  respected  the  religious  ex- 
amples of  the  Jews,  Pilate  set  them  purposely  at 
defiance ;  and  this  not  only  once,  but  again  and 
again,  in  Jerusalem,  in  Galilee,  and  even  in  Samaria, 
until  the  Emperor  himself  interposed  "  (Edersheim). 
There  was  no  hope  to  be  found  in  any  of  the 
established  institutions  of  the  land.  The  schools 
of  the  Rabbis  wrangled  over  mere  questions  of 
ritual  or  legality.      The  Scriptures  were  not  ex- 


240  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

pounded  by  the  Scribes  in  any  new  sense  to  lift  up 
tlie  hearts  of  the  people  with  the  thought  of  com- 
ing redemption.  The  political  zealots,  while  they 
talked  of  conspiracies  and  fanned  the  flame  of 
earthly  ambition,  wrought  no  change  in  the  dark 
cloud  of  oppression  and  despondency  which  hung 
over  all  the  land.  But  there  was  one  name  which 
still  had  a  magic  spell  to  rouse  all  classes  of  the 
nation — it  was  the  name  '' Messiah."  No  one 
could  hear  that  name  pronounced  and  not  at  once 
direct  a  look  to  the  horizon.  It  will  be  some  day 
a  great  Light  shining  in  the  heavens.  When  He 
shall  appear  all  the  night  of  our  misery  will  roll 
away  like  a  cast-off  vesture,  and  we  shall  be  clothed 
in  His  brightness  as  with  garments  of  salvation  and 
victory.  But  when  and  where  shall  Messiah 
appear  ?  It  was  a  question  which  no  doubt  was 
often  agitated  among  learned  Priests  and  Kabbis, 
but  which  never  took  any  one  of  them  away  from 
the  precincts  of  the  Temple  or  the  synagogue,  or 
led  them  to  look  forth  in  any  new  direction  for 
the  sign  of  His  advent.  The  visitor  to  the  Alpine 
summit  waits  in  the  dim  twiliglit  of  early  morn- 
ing to  see  the  glories  of  the  sunrise.  He  turns  his 
face  towards  the  east,  but  he  knows  not  the  exact 
spot  where  the  first  golden  streak  will  appear.  At 
last  the  sound   of  the  Alpine  horn  proclaims  the 


THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.       241 

approach  of  the  great  monarch  of  day.  The 
watcher  hails  the  sight  with  fixed  gaze  and  glow- 
ing admiration.  So  it  was  that  when  the  public 
ministry  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Clirist  was  about  to 
commence,  the  herald-prophet  was  sent  to  wake  up 
the  multitude  throughout  the  whole  land,  to  direct 
their  attention  to  the  right  place,  and  eagerly  ex- 
pect the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

But  why  was  the  mission  of  John  the  Baptist, 
as  a  preparatory  mission  to  that  of  our  Saviour, 
characterised  by  the  novel  features  which  distin- 
guish it  both  from  anything  which,  for  hundreds 
of  years,  had  been  sent  to  the  Jews,  and  from  the 
ministry  of  the  Christ  Himself  which  it  preceded  ? 
In  order  to  answer  this  question  aright,  let  us  review 
the  principal  facts,  in  their  connection  with  the 
subject  which  has  been  before  us — the  Divine  lead- 
ing of  the  Jewish  Church  up  to  the  height  of  their 
faith. 

The  first  and  most  striking  fact  in  the  account 
of  John  the  Baptist  and  his  mission,  is  the  entire 
separation  of  it  from  the  old  lines  of  Judaism, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  equally  distinct  from 
the  new  lines  of  Christianity.  It  is  a  "Voice  in  the 
wilderness."  John  was  the  son  of  a  priest ;  but  he 
does  not  commence  his  ministry  from  the  Temple. 
He  is  not  a  Kabbi,  lifting  up  his  voice  in  the  syna- 

Q 


242  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

gogue.  He  is  not  a  learned  Scribe,  poring  over 
the  rolls  of  Scripture.  He  is  not  a  Saclducee, 
mingling  among  the  banquets  of  the  wealthy  and 
luxurious,  and  dropping  seeds  of  rationalistic  doubt 
into  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  Neither  can  we  say 
that  he  represents  any  sect  whatever  among  the 
religious  zealots  of  the  time.  He  is  not  the  emis- 
sary of  any  party.  He  is  not  the  mouthpiece  of 
any  religious  movement  or  organisation.  He  is  a 
man  completely  by  himself,  who  for  some  years 
had  been  passing  from  wilderness  to  wilderness,  for 
the  purpose  of  solitary  meditation  and  study,  and 
also,  perhaps,  that  he  might  look  with  his  own 
eyes  upon  some  of  the  remarkable  religious  de- 
votees, who  had  retired  into  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  Dead  Sea  and  the  Jordan,  and  lived  lives  of 
great  simplicity  and  purity.  He  was  certainly 
more  at  home  in  such  places,  and  among  such 
people,  than  in  the  scenes  of  strife  and  religious 
bigotry,  and  dead,  corrupting  formalism  round  the 
Temple  of  Jerusalem.  There  was  no  nurture  for 
such  a  spirit  as  his  to  be  found  among  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  Herodians  and  Sadducees.  Moreover, 
the  voice,  if  it  is  to  be  a  voice  which  shall  summon 
all  Israel  to  look  for  the  Messiah  as  the  rising  Sun 
of  Righteousness,  must  be  a  voice  which  calls  them 
away  from  the  old  to  the  new — from  Temple,  syna- 


THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.       243 

gogue,  and  palace,  to  the  horizon  of  the  spiritual 
world.  This  Elijah  must  come  out  of  the  wilder- 
ness. He  must  be  a  man  like  neither  priest  nor 
Eabbi.  He  must  break  the  bondage  of  custom  and 
the  sleep  of  self-complacency,  and  draw  out  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  men  into  the  place  where 
they  shall  feel  that  their  consciences  are  open  to 
the  lightning  stroke  of  heaven,  and  they  shall 
tremble  before  God.  He  must  be  able  to  effect  a 
twofold  change — a  turning  from  the  old  ways — a 
turning  to  the  open  gate  of  the  Kingdom.  What 
were  the  main  features  of  John's  mission,  which 
made  it  a  special  preparation  of  the  people  for 
Messiah  ?  Let  us  distinguish  the  following  four 
constituents  of  this  remarkable  history,  regarded  as 
preparatory  to  the  work  of  our  Lord,  (i.)  The 
doctrine  which  was  contained  in  it,  which  sum- 
marised the  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
so  formed  a  link  between  the  Old  and  the  New. 
(2.)  The  baptismal  rite,  which  was  instituted  by  it, 
and  which  prepared  the  way  for  the  baptism  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  (3.)  The  proclamation,  which 
formed  its  central  fact,  pointing  to  the  person  and 
the  ministry  close  at  hand.  (4.)  The  striking  self- 
ahnegation  of  the  man  himself,  by  a  sudden  and 
complete  eclipse  denoting  all  the  more  conspicuously 
the  supremacy  and  uniqueness  of  the  Messiah. 


244  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

I.  It  has  not  been  sufficiently  recognised  that 
John  the  Baptist,  while  he  was  pre-eminently,  no 
doubt,  the  preacher  of  repentance,  was,  as  a  herald 
of  the  kingdom  of  God,  a  "  voice,"  repeating  in  the 
wilderness  the  leading  notes  of  the  Old  Testament. 
We  have  but  very  scanty  notices  of  his  discourses, 
but  we  have  the  facts  of  his  ministry  before  us, 
and  we  are  able  to  form  a  tolerably  adequate  con- 
ception of  its  effect  upon  the  minds  of  those  who 
came  into  the  wilderness  to  listen  to  the  Voice. 
Now  the  whole  significance  of  the  Old  Dispensation 
lies  along  these  lines,  the  priestly  or  sacrificial,  the 
projjhetic  or  didactic,  the  theocratic  or  social. 
The  people  were  imbued  with  the  three  ideas  re- 
presented in  those  terms,  by  their  institutions, 
sacred  books,  the  personalities  which  were  vividly 
in  their  remembrance,  and  the  incidents  of  their 
national  life  and  history.  But  what  they  especially 
needed  in  the  time  of  their  decay  and  degeneracy 
was  that  such  ideas  should  be  before  their  minds 
in  their  naked  majesty  as  divine  and  heavenly. 
When  they  heard  them  preached  by  a  stern, 
solitary,  spiritual  man,  like  John  the  Baptist,  away 
from  all  ceremonies  and  all  sanctified  buildings, 
and  all  political  entanglements  and  disturbances, 
their  souls  realised  their  greatness,  they  saw  that 
they   were  the  constituents  of  a  kingdom  which 


THE  VOICE  m  THE  WILDEENESS.  245 

might,  at  any  moment,  be  proclaimed  in  their 
midst.  Sacrifice  had  been,  all  through  the  Jewish 
history,  one  of  the  prominent  facts  of  their  national 
life.  But  did  not  their  own  Scriptures  tell  them 
that  the  mere  sacrifice  of  the  altar,  the  mere  ofier- 
ing  up  of  bullocks  and  goats,  was  not  what  God 
required ;  but  that  which  sacrifice  represented  and 
symbolised — a  Divine  liamb,  a  righteousness  which 
was  real,  perfect  righteousness,  put  in  the  place  of 
their  iniquities,  and  bringing  them  back  into  a 
state  of  reconciliation  and  fellowship  with  God  ? 
That  John  did  preach  that,  we  may  feel  quite  sure, 
because  he  both  summoned  them  to  repentance 
before  God,  as  preparatory  to  the  blessings  pro- 
mised in  the  New  Kingdom,  and  he  connected 
with  that  summons  to  repentance  the  announce- 
ment that  the  Lamb  of  God  was  amongst  them, 
who  should  take  away  the  sin  of  the  world.  The 
effect  which  was  produced  by  his  preaching  was 
very  widespread  and  very  wonderful.  The  people 
came  to  him  by  their  thousands  and  confessed  their 
sins,  and  in  doing  so  acknowledged  that  the  mere 
ritualistic  repentance  in  which  they  had  been  trust- 
ino:  was  not  sufficient.  There  w^as  a  better  sacrifice 
required,  there  was  a  higher  priesthood  for  which 
they  must  look — there  w^as  a  divine  righteousness 
which  must  come  to  them  from  heaven.     If  the 


246  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

aim  of  Jolin's  preacliiDg  had  been  to  revive  their 
faithfulness  to  the  observance  of  the  temple  rites, 
to  make  them  more  Pharisaical  and  legal,  he  would 
certainly  not  have  chosen  the  wilderness  for  his 
sphere  of  ministry.  But  the  Eitualistic  and 
Eabbinical  party  held  aloof  from  him,  because 
they  felt  instinctively  that  such  preaching  aimed 
a  heavy  blow  at  their  formalism,  and  exposed 
their  hypocrisy.  "Wisdom  was  justified  of  her 
children."  Again,  it  was  not  only  the  sacrificial 
doctrine  of  the  Old  Testament  which  was  thus 
cleared  of  its  superstitions,  and  held  forth  in  the 
clear  light  of  day,  but  another  great  fact  to  which 
Jewish  history  bore  witness — that  God  by  His 
Spirit  holds  intercourse  with  men  and  communi- 
cates to  them  His  mind  and  will.  The  prophe- 
tic vocation  was  not  limited  to  those  who  were 
especially  distinguished  as  prophets.  Tiie  whole 
nation  was  a  kingdom  of  prophets.  "  To  them 
were  committed  the  oracles  of  God."  They  were 
set  apart  by  a  divine  calling,  and  by  special 
divine  gift,  to  be  the  light  of  the  world — "to 
give  light  to  them  that  sit  in  darkness  and  in  the 
shadow  of  death."  The  Rabbis  had  lost  this  great 
truth  in  their  miserable  pedantry.  The  very  con- 
ception of  personal  inspiration  was  buried  in  the 
obscurity   of  the   past.      It  was  transferred  from 


THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDEKNESS.  247 

the  iudividual  men  to  the  sacred  books,  which 
were  beinoj  dealt  with  not  as  the  voice  of  a  living: 
God  amongst  them,  but  as  a  mere  dead  relic 
of  the  past,  to  be  worshipped  with  superstitious 
reverence  and  turned  into  food  for  intellectual  and 
spiritual  pride.  For  four  hundred  years  there  had 
been  no  voice  among  the  people,  moving  freely 
through  the  land,  and  speaking  as  a  voice  of  God 
with  authority  and  power.  The  nearest  approach 
to  it  had  been  the  outburst  of  religious  zeal  and 
devotion  in  the  family  of  the  Maccabees,  but  that 
had  very  quickly  gone  out  into  political  and  mili- 
tary fanaticism.  There  was  nothing,  as  we  have 
seen,  which  could  be  placed  side  by  side  with  the 
ministry  of  the  Old  Testament  prophets.  But 
John,  the  son  of  Zecharias,  is  manifestly  an  in- 
spired man.  He  speaks  as  with  a  voice  of  God. 
They  cannot  resist  the  energy  and  the  faithfulness 
with  which  he  appeals  to  their  consciences,  and 
calls  them  to  the  bar  of  judgment  in  the  word  of 
God.  But  John's  own  personality  was  by  no  means 
the  sole  testimony  to  the  Truth.  It  was  part  of 
his  message  that  God  was  about  to  pour  out  of  His 
Spirit  as  He  had  done  of  old.  He  declared  that 
there  was  One  coming  immediately,  upon  whom 
the  Spirit  would  descend  and  rest,  as  a  dove,  who 
should  be  not  only  a  word  of  God,  but  the  word  of 


248  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

God — and,  moreover,  such  would  be  the  gracious- 
ness  of  that  time  that  they  themselves  might  be 
baptized  as  freely  and  fully  in  (or  with)  that  Spirit 
of  God  as  he  baptized  them  in  (or  with)  the  water. 
It  would  be  a  baptism  of  fire,  as  well  as  a  baptism 
of  water ;  that  is,  it  would  not  only  cleanse  them, 
but  it  would  burn  up  and  consume  their  sins,  and 
make  them  new  creatures,  like  gold  seven  times 
purified.     And  yet  this  was  very  far  from  all  that 
the  Herald  had  to  announce. '   What  was  the  mes- 
sage of  the  Old  Testament  to  their  nation  ?    Did  it 
not  make  them  a  theocracy  ?     Did  they  not  glory 
in  their  privilege  as  God's  peculiar  people  ?    Did 
they  not  esteem  their  position  as  much  higher  than 
that  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  because  they 
had  Jehovah  as  their  King  ?     And  yet  what  had 
come  of  all  that  Jewish  distinction  ?     They  w^ere 
miserable  slaves  to  the  Eomans.     They  were  held 
down  in  iron  bondage.     There  was  no  hope  in  any- 
thing they  possessed  except  the  promises  of  God. 
But  He  who  gave  the  promises  is  able  to  fulfil 
them.     He  can  raise  up  children  to  Abraham  out 
of  the  very  stones  on  the  river   bank.      "  Why 
should  you  despair  ?    Is  it  not  because  you  have 
no  faith  in  spiritual  powder  ?  because  you  are  looking 
to  the  earth,  instead  of  to  heaven  ?     The  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  is  at  hand.     The  promises  are  now  about 


THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.      249 

to  be  fulfilled.  God  will  lift  you  up  as  a  nation,  if 
you  will  believe  in  Him,  and  restore  to  you  all  that 
you  have  lost ;  and  you  shall  yet  be  the  heralds  of 
His  salvation  to  the  whole  world."  No  doubt  that 
Voice  in  the  Wilderness  was  not  as  clear  and  dis- 
tinct as  the  voices  of  Apostles  and  Evangelists. 
Jesus  declared  that  "the  least  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  w-as  greater"  than  John  the  Baptist,  because 
he  could  not  speak  like  those  who  had  seen  and 
handled  the  Word  of  Life.  But  we  must  not  mis- 
construe the  comparative  silence  of  the  record  as  to 
John's  teaching.  He  laboured  through  some  months 
in  public  preaching.  We  cannot  suppose  that  his 
sermons  were  mere  repetitions  of  the  call  to  repent- 
ance. They  w^ere  intended  to  prepare  the  w^ay  of 
the  Lord.  They  were  to  form  a  link  of  connection 
between  the  revelations  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  revelations  of  the  New.  The  chief  points  of 
doctrine  which  were  henceforth  to  be  the  main  lines 
of  the  Christian  faith,  would  undoubtedly  be  the 
chief  tones  of  the  Voice  in  the  Wilderness,  thus 
preparing  the  people  for  One  who  was  to  be  their 
Priest,  their  Prophet,  and  their  King.  No  greater 
prophet,  Jesus  said,  had  been  born  into  the  world 
than  John  the  Baptist,  and  with  such  a  testimony 
to  his  greatness  we  cannot  doubt  that  he  was  one 
who  had  deeply  studied  the  sacred  writings,  and 


250  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

who  was  able  under  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  to  set  forth  their  very  substance,  in  outline  at 
least,  before  the  multitudes.  This  view  of  the 
preaching  of  John  the  Baptist  will  help  us  to 
understand  what  is  very  often  misunderstood,  the 
significance  and  intention  of  his  baptism,  which 
was  not  a  mere  appendage  to  Lis  preaching,  and 
certainly  had  no  mere  personal  motive  underlying 
it,  but  was  a  distinct  preparation  for  the  baptism 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  To  this  subject  we  must  now 
give  attention. 

II.  The  baptism  of  John  was  an  integral  part 
of  his  mission,  and  heralded  the  baptism  of  the 
Christian  Church.  *'  Why  haptizest  thou,"  was  the 
question  asked  of  John  by  tlie  deputation  from  the 
Pharisees,  "  if  thou  he  not  that  Christ,  nor  Elias, 
neither  that  prophet?"  Evidently  the  Jews  con- 
nected baptism  with  some  special  distinction  in  the 
mission  of  the  baptizer.  It  would  seem  to  them  to 
imply  that  John  regarded  himself  as  in  some  way  a 
messenger  of  God,  and  not  a  merely  ordinary  ex- 
pounder of  the  Scriptures.  The  answer  which  John 
gave  to  the  question  was  that  the  baptism  was  in- 
tended to  prepare  the  way  for  another  person,  and, 
therefore,  was  only  a  subordinate  baptism ;  but  on 
other  occasions  it  is  described  as  a  baptism  "unto 


THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.  251 

the  remission  of  sins"  (Mark  i.  4;  Luke  iii.  3). 
"VVe  are  also  told  that  tlie  people  were  "  baptized  of 
him  in  Jordan,  confessing  their  sins/'  Matt.  iii.  6. 
It  did  not,  therefore,  represent  by  the  water  the 
actual  forgiveness  and  reconciliation  with  God  of 
the  person  baptized,  but  rather  that  acknowledg- 
ment of  sin  which  accompanied,  under  the  Mosaic 
Dispensation,  the  offering  up  of  sacrifice.  It  was 
entirely  an  initiatory  rite.  The  baptized  person 
was  regarded  as  prepared  by  it  for  the  reception  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  "We  are  able,  by  this  view  of 
the  rite,  to  connect  it  with  the  baptisms  which  were 
customary  among  the  Jews.  They  were  ablutions 
which  preceded  or  accompanied  the  act  of  worship, 
but  they  were  not  regarded  as  containing  in  them- 
selves any  gift  of  God  conveyed  through  the  water. 
So  in  the  case  of  John's  baptism  there  is  no  inten- 
tion to  teach  that  by  baptism  the  sinner  is  cleansed 
from  sin  and  brought  back  into  a  covenant  relation 
with  Jehovah.  Such  an  idea  would  be  inconceiv- 
able to  the  Jewish  mind.  But  those  who  confessed 
their  sins  and  were  baptized  stood  at  the  altar  ready 
for  the  sacrifice.  They  were  prepared  to  offer  it 
acceptably.  They  had  already  stretched  forth  their 
hands,  and  it  only  needed  that  the  Head  of  the 
nation  should  be  revealed  unto  them  that  the  sacri- 
fice should  be  complete,  and  they  should  rejoice  in 


252  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

the  blessings  of  the  Kingdom.  There  was  a  pro- 
phetic element,  therefore,  in  the  baptism  of  John, 
which  gave  it  its  distinctive  value.  He  said  plainly, 
There  cometh  One  who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world.  Hence  the  Baptist  was  not  content  to  re- 
nounce all  merit  in  his  baptism,  but  he,  at  the  same 
time,  explained  it  as  a  mere  typical  rite  which 
would  be  abolished  by  the  fulfilment  of  its  meaning 
in  the  true  baptism,  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  Jews  were  well  able  to  grasp  the  meaning  of 
this,  if  only  they  were  not  blinded  by  prejudice. 
The  great  day  of  atonement  taught  them  that  sin 
was  not  to  be  done  away  by  mere  words  or  gifts. 
God  had  promised  them  to  provide  a  sacrifice.  They 
were  required  to  prepare  themselves  by  repentance 
and  confession  for  the  acceptance  of  His  gift.  We 
must  avoid  the  error  into  which  some  have  fnllen, 
and  amongst  them  Dr.  Stanley,  of  representing  John 
as  inculcating  by  his  baptism  the  doctrine  of  self- 
righteousness — that  by  repentance  we  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  "  He  took  advantage,"  says 
the  Dean,  "  of  that  leap  into  the  river  or  the  reser- 
voir to  call  upon  one  and  all  to  spring  into  a  new 
life,  to  wash  off  the  stains  upon  their  honour  and 
their  consciences,  which  choked  up  the  pores  of 
their  moral  texture  and  impeded  the  influx  of  the 
new  truths  with  which  the  air  around  them  was 


THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.  253 

sliortly  to  be  impregnated.  He  proclaimed  the  one 
indispensable  condition  of  all  spiritual  religion,  that 
the  regeneration  of  the  human  spirit  was  to  be 
accomplished,  not  by  ceremonies  or  opinions,  not 
by  succession  or  descent,  but  by  moral  uprightness. 
The  substitution  of  the  wholesome,  inspiriting, 
simple  process  of  the  bath,  in  which  the  head  and 
body  and  limbs  should  be  submerged  in  the  rush- 
ing river,  for  the  sanguinary,  costly  gifts  of  the 
sacrificial  slaughter-house,  was  a  living  representa- 
tion in  a  single  act  of  the  whole  prophetic  teaching 
of  the  supremacy  of  Duty  ! "  We  quote  such  words 
for  the  sake  of  pointing  out  that  they  are  in  the  very 
teeth  of  John's  own  declarations  that  he  did  not 
baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  only  prepared  the 
way  for  One  who  did.  Dr.  Stanley  refers  in  a  note 
to  the  identical  use  of  repentance  and  regeneration 
by  the  early  fathers,  but  he  omits  to  state  that  in 
the  Kingdom  of  God  the  act  of  repentance  is  an  act 
of  faith,  because  the  Eedeemer  has  been  revealed  as 
an  object  of  faith,  but  until  Christ  came  repentance 
was  only  unto  the  remission  of  sins  which  should 
be  declared  in  the  Messiah.  The  Baptist  invited 
the  people  to  find  their  salvation  in  the  Lamb  of 
God. 

ni.  The  central  fact  in   the  Baptist's  mission 


254  FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE. 

was  bis  proclamation  of  the  hingdom.  "What, 
then,  was  that  proclamation  ?  It  was  the  personal 
testimony  of  the  greatest  of  all  the  prophets  to  the 
diviner  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Hence 
we  find  it  placed  in  the  most  prominent  position 
by  the  fourth  Evangelist,  who  by  his  profound 
insight  into  the  truth  of  the  kingdom  prepared  the 
way  for  the  conquest  of  Christianity  over  the  false 
doctrines  which  were  springing  up  round  the  early 
Church.  He  begins  at  once  with  the  fact  that  the 
chief  errand  of  the  Baptist  was  "  to  bear  witness 
of  the  light,  that  all  men  through  him  might 
believe."  The  day  after  the  deputation  from  the 
Pharisees  had  received  from  the  Baptist  the  solemn 
renunciation  of  all  claim  to  be  himself  the  Messiah, 
and  the  announcement  that  already  the  Great  One 
was  in  their  midst,  therefore,  while  still  the  multi- 
tudes were  under  the  influence  of  that  startling 
news  that  Messiah  was  come,  "John  seeth  Jesus 
coming  unto  him,  and  saith.  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world. 
This  is  He  of  whom  I  said.  After  me  cometh  a  man 
which  is  preferred  before  me :  for  He  was  before 
me.  And  I  knew  Him  not :  but  that  He  should  be 
made  manifest  to  Israel,  therefore  am  I  come 
baptizing  with  water.  And  John  bare  record, 
saying,  I  saw  the  Spirit  descending  from  heaven 


THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.  255 

like  a  dove,  and  it  abode  upon  Him.  And  I 
knew  Him  not :  but  He  that  sent  me  to  baptize 
with  water,  the  same  said  unto  me.  Upon  whom 
thou  shalt  see  the  Spirit  descending,  and  remaining 
on  Him,  the  same  is  He  which  baptizeth  with  the 
Holy  Ghost.  And  I  saw,  and  bare  record  that 
this  is  the  Son  of  God."  The  next  day  the  same 
proclamation  was  repeated  to  disciples,  and  they 
were  bidden  to  follow  Jesus,  which  they  did,  for- 
saking their  master  John.  The  same  directness 
and  completeness  of  the  testimony  given  by  John 
is  implied,  though  not  so  fully  expressed,  in  the 
synoptical  gospels.  The  preaching  which  was  the 
preaching  of  the  Kingdona  of  God  is  thus  declared 
to  have  been  a  proclamation  of  the  personal  Ee- 
deemer.  In  what  aspects  of  His  personal  character, 
then,  did  the  Baptist  identify  Jesus  Christ  and 
the  Kingdom  of  God  ?  He  was  the  Lamb  of  God. 
He  was  the  baptizer  with  the  Spirit.  He  was  the 
Son  of  God,  i.e.,  the  King  of  Israel.  The  three 
essential  elements  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  were 
thus  embodied  and  realised  in  Christ,  the  sacrificial 
atonement  which  cleansed  away  sin  ;  the  gift  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  which  communicated  light  to  those 
that  were  in  darkness,  and  life  to  those  that 
were  dead  ;  and  the  restoration  of  the  fallen  state, 
the   rebuilding   of  Jerusalem,  the   setting  up  of 


256  FOUR  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

the  Throne  of  Eighteousness  and  Peace  in  the 
world,  according  to  the  ancient  promise  that  in 
Abraham  and  his  seed  all  the  families  of  the  earth 
should  be  blessed.  It  is  in  this  very  decided  testi- 
mony of  John  to  the  Messiah  that  we  find  the 
explanation  of  the  words  in  which  Jesus  replied  to 
the  Baptist  when  he  expressed  his  reluctance  to 
perform  the  rite  on  One  so  great :  "I  have  need 
to  be  baptized  of  Thee,  and  comest  thou  to  me?" 
i.e.j  I  have  need  of  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  dost  Thou  who  givest  the  baptism  apply  for 
the  baptism  which  was  a  preparation  for  it  ?  Jesus 
answered,  "  Suflfer  it  to  be  so  now,  for  thus  it  be- 
cometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness."  You  and  I 
are  not  acting  independently  of  one  another,  you 
are  my  witness  and  I  am  your  Lord.  You  give 
your  witness  to  me  by  baptism,  and  I  give  my 
approval  to  you  by  submitting  to  your  baptism. 
The  Son  was  baptized  not  because  He  was  a 
penitent  but  because  He  was  a  believer,  accepting 
before  all  the  people  the  righteous  appointments  of 
God,  and  the  promises  which  were  contained  in 
them.  If  the  baptism  of  John  meant,  as  Dr. 
Stanley  maintains,  that  the  person  baptized  had 
passed  through  repentance  into  regeneration,  it 
was  a  mockery  upon  the  part  of  the  Son  of  God 
to  be  baptized;  but  if  it   meant  no   more   than 


THE  VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS.  257 

acceptance  of  John's  message  that  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  was  at  hand,  then  Jesus  was  the  appro- 
priate subject  of  such  a  baptism,  and  He  himself 
was  the  most  distinguished  of  John's  disciples. 
But  this  memorable  scene  between  the  Forerunner 
and  the  Saviour  leads  us  to  the  last  point  to  which 
we  have  referred. 

IV.  The  Baptist  retired  into  obscurity  in  view 
of  the  manifested  Christ.  "  Kabbi,"  said  the  dis- 
ciples of  John,  "  He  that  was  with  thee  beyond 
Jordan,  to  whom  thou  barest  witness,  behold,  the 
same  baptizeth,  and  all  men  come  to  Him."  It  was 
an  important  crisis.  How  did  the  Baptist  meet  it  ? 
By  entire  self-abnegation  and  faithfulness  to  his 
own'  mission.  "  This  my  joy  is  fulfilled."  It  is 
the  Bridegroom's  voice.  My  voice  must  be  silent, 
except  as  the  voice  of  the  Bridegroom's  friend. 
"  He  must  increase,  but  I  must  decrease."  It  was 
in  accordance  with  this  retirement  of  the  Baptist 
that  the  history  records  his  speedy  disappearance 
by  martyrdom  from  the  scene.  It  would  have  been 
a  very  perplexing ,  state  of  things  had  the  ministry 
of  John  been  prolonged,  for  notwithstanding  his 
distinct  announcement  of  the  Messiah,  there  would 
have  been  multitudes  who  were  unable  to  distin- 
guish between  the  voice  of  the  Bridegroom  and  the 


258  FOUK  CENTUEIES  OF  SILENCE. 

voice  of  the  Bridegroom's  friend.  But  the  work 
of  preparation  was  now  completed.  The  promised 
Elijah  had  come,  and  for  a  time  the  people  were 
willing  to  rejoice  in  that  light,  which  was  a  true 
light  from  heaven.  But  the  Day  of  the  Lord  is  a 
greater  trial  of  faith  than  the  early  morning.  The 
"  burning  and  shining  Light "  is  as  nothing  when 
compared  to  that  which  the  Prophet  Malachi  said 
would  be  "  the  great  and  dreadful  Day  of  the 
Lord,"  the  day  which  "  shall  burn  as  an  oven." 
The  horizon  of  the  Jewish  Church,  on  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  there  were  gleams  of  light  which  were 
never  wholly  lost  for  hundreds  of  years,  was  hence- 
forth all  ablaze  with  the  great  facts  of  the  Gospel. 
Divine  righteousness  was  unveiled.  The  "  goiug 
forth"  of  this  Sun  of  Infiuite  truth  and  love  "is 
from  the  end  of  the  heaven,  and  His  circuit  unto 
the  ends  of  it ;  and  there  is  nothing  hid  from  the 
heat  thereof." 


THE  END. 


PRINTED  BY  BALLANTYNE,  HANSON  AND  Ca 
EDINBURGH  AND  LONDON. 


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Rev.  Professor  J.  Radford  Thomson,  M.A., 
Rev.  Edward  White, 
Rev.  J.  E.  Page  Hopps, 
Rev.  Crosby  Barlow,  M.A., 

And  Others. 
Reprinted  from  the  Symposium  in  the  HomUetic  Magazine. 


11. 

Crown  8vo.     6s. 

ZECH  ARI  AH  : 

niS    VISIONS    AND     WAIi,NINGS. 

BY  THE  LATE 

Rev.  W.  LINDSAY  ALEXANDER,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  r.R.S.E.,  Edinbdrgh. 


IIL 
Crown  8vo.     6s. 

FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  SILENCE; 

OR,  FROM  MALACEI  TO  CHRIST. 

By  the  Eev.  R.  A.  BEDFORD,  M.A.,  LL.B., 

Professor  of  Systematic  Theology  and  Apologetics,  New  College,  London ; 

Author  of  "The  Christian's  Plea  against  Modem  Unbelief,"  &c. 

I 


NISBET'S  THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY— Continued. 


IV. 

Crown  8vo.     6  s. 

ATONEMENT: 

A  Clerical  Symposium  on  the  Atonement. 

By  the  Eevs.  Dr.  Littledale,  A.  Mackennal,  J.  Page  Hopps, 
Dr.  Olver,  Principal  Rainy,  D.D.,  Edward  White, 
Professor  Israel  Abrahams,  Dr.  Paton  Gloag,  Ven. 
Archdeacon  Farrar,  Right  Rev.  Bishop  op  Amycla, 
and  Others. 


CRITICAL    OPINIONS. 


The  Literary  Churchman. 

"We  recommend  our  readers  to  purchase  the  work.  Although 
the  papers  are  naturally  argumentative  and  not  devotional,  the 
record  of  the  effort  of  different  minds  to  grasp  the  doctrine  of  the 
Atonement  cannot  but  be  helpful." 

The  Irish  Ecclesiastical  Gazette. 
•'  The  volume  contains  many  thoughts  of  value." 

The  Literary  World. 
"A  valuable  addition  to  the  theological  literature  of  the  day." 

The  Baptist. 

"  To  the  trained  theologian  it  will  have  all  the  interest  of  a  well- 
ordered  battle  between  well-trained  disputants." 

Liverpool  Mercury. 
"The  volume  is  one  of  permanent  value,  and  will  save  both  time 
and  research  in  wading  through  theological  dictionaries  to  find  what 
lies  here  ready  to  hana." 

Newcastle  Journal. 

"We  question  if  any  volume  has  yet  been  published  on  the 
Atonement  which  sets  fortli  the  views  of  Christendom  in  so  many 
varied  lights,  and  at  the  same  time  with  so  much  mutual  toleration 
and  modesty.  This  is  a  book  which  ought  to  find  a  place  in  every 
theological  library." 


NISBET'S  THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY-Continued. 


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INSPIRATION 


A   Clet'ical  Syynposium  on  In  what  Sense  and   Within  what 
Limits  is  the  Bible  the  Word  of  God? 

By  the  Ven.  Archdeacon  Farrar,  the  Rev.  Principal  Cairns, 
the  Rev.  Prebendary  Stanley  Leathes,  D.D.,  the  Rev. 
Prebendary  Row,  the  Rev.  Professor  J.  Radford  Thomson, 
the  Right  Rev.  the  Bishop  op  Amycla,  and  Others. 


CRITICAL    OPINIONS. 


The  Chupch  Times. 

"The  volume  is  an  interesting  one,  written  tnroughout  in  a  tem- 
perate and  scholarly  spirit,  and  likely  to  prove  useful  to  the  higher 
htamp  of  theological  students." 

The  Scotsman. 

"These  clever  papers,  written  for  the  most  part  by  men  of  mark 
and  stiinding,  although  they  may  have  an  unsettling  tendency,  are 
well  calculated  to  attract  attention  and  to  repay  perusal." 

The  Freeman. 
"  Every  side  of  the  question  is,  if  not  fully,  at  aiiy  rate  candidly 
and  reverently  discussed ;   and  as  an  epitome  of  the  various  con- 
ceptions which  are  now  current  on  this  momentous  theme,  there  can 
be  no  better  or  more  useful  work  than  this." 

The  Literary  Churchman. 
"  If  any  book  were  designed  to  show  that  the  Bible  was  never 
intended  to  stand  alone,  but  that  a  supernatural  revelation  must  of 
necessity  be  committed  to  a  supernatural  custodian,  it  could  not  have 
better  fulfiiled  its  object  than  this  '  Clerical '  Symposium." 

The  Edinburgh  Courant. 

"  A  most  valuable  contribution  to  inspirational  literature.  A  jrreat 
variety  of  views,  all  falling  within  the  Imes  of  recognised  orthodoxy, 
are  brought  toj;ether,  and  made  to  act  and  react  ou  each  other.  Their 
individual  weight  is  thus  more  clciirly  ascertained,  and  a  stronger 
impression  is  given  of  the  force  of  argument  in  favour  of  inspuatiou." 

Aberdeen  Free  Press. 

"  This  valuable  and  suggestive  book  ought  to  have  a  place  in  every 
minister's  library." 


NEW  AND    RECENT   WORKS 


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Demy  8vo,  ISs, 


A  New  Work  by  the  Rev.  A.  F.  MITCHELL,  D.D. 

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Paut  2. 

RUTHERFORD'S  AND  OTHER  SCOTTISH  CATECHISMS 

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active  service  for  the  i-iiiritual  good  of  men,  and  we  heartily  commend  it  to  thtm. " — 
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